On Monday, November 26, John Cabot University Coed Volleyball and Men’s Basketball teams kicked off two new tournaments, respectively Oro Verde Tournament and UISP Tournament, in addition to the Universities of Rome Championship.

Two good tests for our teams, which showed remarkable evidence of improvements both on a technical level and as a team.

COED VOLLEYBALL
Decent start for our Gladiators in the Oro Verde Tournament. Indeed, despite JCU fell to Icaro Per Caso (IPC) team in a 1-3 loss [19-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-10], our Gladiators played a good game, overall.

JCU began the match off strong, holding IPC to a little hitting score percentage rate in the opening frame, while displaying a strong offensive strategy, which led JCU to take the lead and win the first set.

1st set – JCU action and score

Second and third set brought a complete overturn in the match with IPC performing a comeback. Our Gladiators continued to battle during both sets, making it harder for the opponents to score. However, IPC was able to take a advantage of a few errors from our part, and it took the lead.

Down two sets to one, JCU tried to get back in the game, but fatigue took over, and our Gladiators lost the necessary concentration.

“Overall, I am quite satisfied with the way we played tonight,” coach Stefano Papari commented at the end of the game. “The team, somewhat, let go in the last set because it is still not used to play longer matches since this is fairly new team. But they performed really well in the first three sets. I saw really good things tonight on the court, and this shows that the team is growing, and all the players are improving individually and as a team.”

Congratulations, Gladiators! Yesterday was the warm-up for tonight’s Universities of Rome Championship kick-off game of the Season against The American University of Rome! Keep it up with the good work and good luck!

MVP – Veronica Rusich

BASKETBALL
An intentse and exciting game for our Basketball team who kicked off the Uisp Tournament with an amazing 62-70 win over Amaldi Team (AMT).

AMT wasn’t an easy rival to defeat. The game was tough, and the opponents were strong and well-organized, but eventually our Gladiators were able to pull off a well-deserved victory.

Few minutes into the first quarter, JCU was already suffering from the opponents’ pressing game tactics and was not able to defend well against their movements. However, our Gladiators battled as they could, closing the first quarter with only 2-point gap in favor of AMT (17-15).

Second quarter saw the opposing team taking a decisive lead over JCU by clearly dominating the game. JCU tried to defend at its best, while the offensive side lacked a little bit of luck and wasted a few precious opportunities to score. At the end of the second quarter, the rivals increased the score distance even more, closing 37-25.

In the third quarter, coach Francesco Serraino decided to make a change in the line up, and all the players, who were temporarily reserves for the match, took on the field such as Gabriele Ciulli, Andre Lacerda, Ben Shapira, and Justin Sobelman. They all played an excellent game both in defense and offense, restoring a little bit of confidence in the entire team. When the first-string team players re-entered to the field, they were able to keep on the good energy-level and competitiveness of their teammates.

Fourth quarter, JCU came back to the field stronger and with the right mentality, and surprisingly, it was able to tie the result at the buzzer thanks to captain Patrick Gilmore‘s impressive 3-point score.

Our Gladiators regained full trust in their abilities in the extra time and gave their best, closing the game with an unbelievable victory.

“I want to congratulate with all my players! They all played an excellent game, and the contribution each one of them was fundamental to the victory,” coach Francesco said.

Congrats, Gladiators because you never gave up and fought until the very last minute! You proved once again to be a very competitive and strong team!

MVP – Patrick Gilmore

COMING UP NEXT:

Universities of Rome Championship (Volleyball) – JCU vs AUR | Tuesday, November 27 | 9:15 pm | Virgilio

Universities of Rome Championship (Basketball) – JCU vs AUR vs TVG vs UFI | Monday, December 3 | 9:30 pm | Virgilio