Robertlandy Simón ties record in Italy Superliga

April 10, 2024

Cuban Robertlandy Simón, player for the Piacenza club, managed to tie a record for attacking effectiveness during his team's second victory in the playoff series that determines positions five through eight in the current Italian Volleyball Superliga.

The middle blocker for the island's national team achieved perfect success on all 13 of his offensive plays, and also contributed five points from blocks against Verona in five sets with scores of 25-20, 23-25, 25-27, 25-16 and 15-8, according to a note published by the sports portal Jit.

The outlet notes that "when considering the ranking for the highest number of winning attacks by percentage in a match, it takes into account the 13 executed by a player. This result had only been recorded on two occasions prior to this date."

Previously it had been accomplished by Roberto Russo in the 2018-2019 regular season during a Ravenna-Sora match, and Tim Held in 2020-2021 (Pineto-Aversa, in the A3 playoffs).

The report adds that in the remaining matches in the competition for the fifth position, Modena defeated Cisterna, also in five sets (23-25, 25-23, 26-24, 23-25, 15-10); while Padova surpassed Civitanova (25-18, 25-21, 25-23).

Civitanova, which has a record of one win and one loss, featured a standout performance by Cuban attacker Marlon Yant, who contributed 11 points, five of them from the service line.

Meanwhile, in the third round of the Superliga Italian semifinal round, Perugia took the lead in their matchup against Milano (2-1), thanks to victory in four sets (20-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-21).

The winners could not count this time on the services of the island's opposite, Jesús Herrera, who is troubled by knee soreness. Fellow Cuban Osniel Mergarejo, who plays for Milano, came in as a substitute and scored five points.

In the other semifinal, Monza (1-2) broke Trentino's undefeated streak by defeating them in a tiebreaker with hard-fought sets of 24-26, 25-22, 27-25, 25-27 and 15-13.