An impressive return to the Del Monte A spectacular return to the Del Monte An impressive comeback to the Del Monte An impressive return to the Del Monte An impressive comeback to the Del Monte A spectacular comeback to the Del Monte An impressive return to the Del Monte An impressive comeback to the Del Monte An impressive return to the Del Monte Italica Cup Final Four for Cucine Lube Civitanova after a three-year absence. At the Unipol Arena in Bologna, in front of nearly 8,000 spectators, the red and whites prevailed in the semi-final over the European champions Itas Trentino in a tie-break (26-24, 24-26, 14-25, 25-22, 13-15) after 2 hours and 13 minutes of battle, qualifying for the tournament final for the 12th time in the club's history with the intention of adding an eighth cup with the tricolor cockade to their trophy cabinet.

Civitanova won the match on blocks (10 blocks against 7 for Trentino), were stable in reception, and showed greater precision in attack in decisive moments. The top scorers in the match were Loeppky and Lagumdzija, each with 18 points, followed by Bottolo (16). Personal milestones were recorded by Chinenyeze, who surpassed 1500 points in Italy, and Gargiulo, who crossed the 1000-point mark in his career. Among the opponents, Lavia was the top scorer (16). Along with him, four other teammates finished with double-digit scores.Alex Nikolov entered in the second half of the fourth game and finished with 6 points.

Lube will return to the court for the grand final against Rana Verona tomorrow, Sunday, January 26, at 4:15 PM, with live broadcast on MaxSport1, Rai 2, and VBTV, again on the tricolor Teraflex at Unipol Arena. After 54 matches in the championship (44 wins against 10 for Civitanova) between the regular season and playoffs, for the first time, the Marche team and the Verona team will face each other for the Italian Cup, in a rematch of the 5th place playoff final, played in 2024 in Verona.

Itas Trentino - Cucine Lube Civitanova 2-3 (26-24, 24-26, 14-25, 25-22, 13-15)

TRENTO: Bristot (L) did not play, Pesaresi did not play, Michieletto 15, Sbertoli 1, Pellacani did not play, Garcia Fernandez 11, Rychlicki 1, Magalini 2, Laurenzano (L), Lavia 16, Bartha 13, Flavio 13, Acquarone. Head coach: Soli

CIVITANOVA: Chinenyeze 9, Gargiulo 6, Loeppky 18, Orduna, Bisotto (L) did not play, Balaso (L), Boninfante 4, Poria 2, Nikolov 6, Lagumdzija 18, D'irlic 2, Podrascanin, Bottolo 16, Tenorio did not play. Head coach: Medei

Set durations: 28', 29', 21', 33', 22'. Total time: 2h13. Trento: service errors 18, aces 8, blocks 7, attack efficiency 45%, reception 47% (22%).
Civitanova: service errors 22, aces 6, blocks 10, attack efficiency 50%, reception 52% (28%). Spectators: 7812.