Year in Review: Italy deliver under pressure to win second VNL title

The Italian women’s volleyball national team entered the 2024 international season knowing they would have no room for mistakes. With their eyes set on the Paris Olympics, the Europeans were still a long way from the French capital when the Volleyball Nations League 2024 started, as they needed to earn world ranking points to secure a spot in the event.

To make matters more complicated, the frustrating 2023 season had brought changes to their coaching staff, bringing in the veteran Julio Velasco without much time to make the adjustments and make the changes he judged necessary to make the most of the talented Italian group of players.

Progress would need to come on the fly and the opening week of the VNL was a great reflection of it as, after debuting with a surprising upset to Poland in Antalya, Türkiye, the Italians found their rhythm and triumphed in the next three matches of the pool, beating Germany, Bulgaria and the hosts and defending champions.

“I think the most important part was obviously that we won,” opposite Ekaterina Antropova said after the first of those victories, against the Germans. “It was an important win for us, mostly because it showed us that we can do this. Even though we are a new team, we know how to power through the difficult moments together. This game was an excellent proof of that.”

The second week held in Macao, China, was much more stable, with the Italians getting three sweeps, against France, the Dominican Republic and China, and falling in a dramatic tie-breaker to Brazil.

By that point, the Europeans had already earned more than enough points to book their tickets to Paris, but that didn’t stop them from having a clean, perfect display on Week 3 in Fukuoka, Japan, topping Canada, Korea, Olympic champions the United States and world champions Serbia.

Finishing the Preliminary Phase in second place gave the Italians the motivation and the confidence they needed to fight for their second VNL title and that showed with how strongly the team performed in Bangkok, the host city of the Finals.

In the quarterfinals, they handled Olympic champions USA easily, winning in three sets. The next day, the Italians were even more dominant in the semifinals, sweeping Poland, one of just two teams that were able to take matches from them in Preliminary Phase.

Facing Japan in the gold medal match, the Europeans benefited from their larger experience in big moments to take the 3-1 win and return to the top of the podium in the VNL.

“I am happy, of course, because we are an amazing group and you can see it in how we play on the court. I hope this is just the beginning,” Italy’s middle blocker and captain Anna Danesi said after the final. “This tournament was really hard, we travelled a lot, but we stayed focused and we won. Again, it’s an amazing team!”

The biggest star of the Italian victory, opposite Paola Egonu was nominated as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, repeating what she had done in their 2022 victory. She was also one of four Italian players to appear in the tournament’s Dream Team, alongside setter Alessia Orro, outside hitter Miriam Sylla and middle blocker Sarah Fahr. Libero Manami Kojima and outside hitter Sarina Koga represented Japan in the lineup, with middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk standing out for Poland.

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