Conegliano come back to beat Novara and advance to the Finals

Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano are set to defend their Lega Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà title for a seventh-straight season after they qualified for the Scudetto Finals of the 2025-2026 edition of the tournament on Tuesday.

Leading the best-of-five semifinal series against Igor Gorgonzola Novara 2-0, the Panthers started the third match of the duel behind, but fought back and triumphed 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-23) in Villorba, booking their tickets to the Finals in front of their home fans.

• Watch the Lega Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà playoffs live on VBTV

With that, Conegliano will play in the Italian League Finals for an eighth-straight season and for the tenth time in 13 seasons in the Italian elite. They now wait for the conclusion of the series between Savino Del Bene Scandicci and Numia Vero Volley Milano to know their opponents in the best-of-five series that will decide the title.

Swedish star opposite Isabelle Haak and Brazilian national team captain Gabriela 'Gabi' Guimarães led Conegliano's comeback, with each of them dropping 20 points in their victory. The match's MVP award went to Olympic champion middle blocker Sarah Fahr, who produced 14 points, with eight kills, five blocks and one ace.

"Novara played an incredible defensive game, and that annoyed us at the start," Fahr said. "But we reacted and made it to the Finals, which was our goal. Now it's the best part of the season."

Missing Russian star opposite Tatiana Tolok, Novara had most of their production coming from their talented outside hitter trio, with Japanese Mayu Ishikawa tallying 14 points (all in kills) and Belgian Britt Herbots and German Lina Alsmeier adding 13 each.

"We really wanted to take the series back to Novara and are sad that we couldn't do it," Alsmeier reacted. "We had our chances tonight, but we couldn't capitalize on them. It was never going to be easy, and it got even harder without Tolok, but I'm proud of the team because we gave everything we had."

Lega Volley Femminile - Match Schedule & Results

The third match of the series involving Scandicci and Milano will be held on Wednesday, at 20:30 local time (21:30 UTC), in Firenze. Milano lead the series 2-0.

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