Havana, January 6 (JIT)-- The teams in which Cuban players Jesús Herrera (Perugia) and Osniel Mergarejo (Milano) play advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 Italian Volleyball Cup and will play against each other on January 27 at the Casalecchio di Reno arena in Bologna.

The game will start at 6:30 p.m. (local time), after the game between Trentino and Monza, scheduled for 4:00 p.m. The winners will clash on Sunday 28 for the title.

Four direct elimination matches determined the protagonists of this fifteenth final four. Piacenza, where national team members Robertlandy Simón and Roamy Alonso also play, and Civitanova, which hosts Marlon Yant, lost in two of those matches.

In the quarterfinals, Perugia, world club champions, defeated Modena by 3-0 sets (25-22, 25-16, 25-18). Herrera finished as the second best scorer of his team with 13 points and 56% of effectiveness in attack. He was only surpassed by his teammate, Poland's Kamil Semeniuk, who scored 14 with two service aces and a stupendous 79% in attack, according to the league's website.

Perugia is in second place in the European Super League with 28 points and a record of nine wins and three losses. Modena is seventh with 17 (7-5).

Monza defeated the Italian runner-up Civitanova by 3-1 sets (31-33, 25-20, 25-15, 25-23). After the first set, they pressed almost all the time until they gave up. Marlon Yant's 11 points, Lagumdzija's 19 and Nikolov's 16 were not enough to win.  

Milano defeated Piacenza, champion of the Italian Cup, after more than two hours of hard-fought action. They won the match 25-16, 20-25, 25-21, 22-25 and 22-20.For the losers, center backs Simón and Alonso accumulated 11 and three points, respectively. For the winners, Mergarejo was scoreless.

Piacenza is in third place in the superleague with 27 points (8-4). Milano qualified for the cup tournament in sixth place, but after last Saturday climbed to fifth with 21 units (7-5).

In the other quarterfinal duel, Trentino, current leader in the superleague standings, advanced by beating Verona (25-14, 25-19, 25-23).The leaders have 31 points and a record of 11 wins to one loss. 

Verona is in eighth place with 17 (6-6).

As for the regular season of the super league, next Saturday will resume with the challenges Piacenza-Milano and Civitanova-Padua. On Sunday the program is completed by Taranto-Trentino, Modena-Verona, Perugia-Monza and Cisterna-Catania.