Showing some great strength of character, Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano’s Sarah Fahr has overcome a second long period away from the volleyball courts and has been back in action since the start of 2023. The performance of the 21-year-old star middle blocker of the Italian national team has been picking up speed and she is quite likely to play a key role in Imoco’s quest for their fourth consecutive national cup trophy at this weekend’s Coppa Italia A1 Frecciarossa finals.
Legavolley Femminile A1 - 2022
Fahr gains momentum after return from second surgery
After two absences of 469 days in total, the 21-year-old star is back full time with Imoco
Published 08:00, 28 Jan 2023
Sarah Fahr (19) celebrates with her teammates
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BENTORNATA IN CAMPO SARAH💛💙🔥 Dopo mesi di lunga attesa è finalmente arrivato l’esordio in campionato di Sarah Fahr!✨ #Imoco10 #SiamoTuttiPantere
Posted by Imoco Volley on Sunday, March 13, 2022
At only 19 years of age, Fahr was a regular starter for Italy, when the team were rocking and rolling on the way to the continental title at the 2021 CEV European Championship. However, during the third set of their game against hosts Croatia on August 25, Sarah suffered a rupture of her right knee ACL and the tournament was over for her.
Exactly 200 days later, after surgery and a long rehab period, the 1.92m-tall middle blocker returned to the court taking part in an Imoco league game on March 13, 2022. Unfortunately, exactly a month later, on April 13, in the early stages of the playoffs, she tore the ligament again, another surgical intervention was needed and she was back to stranded. Her teammates went on to win the national title and dedicated the victory to her.
This time, she was out for even longer, but Fahr persevered once more and, another 269 days later, she came back to compete again! Despite her problems, the club extended her contract and she is still a player of Italy’s defending champions for the third season in a row. As coach Daniele Santarelli said, she believed in Conegliano and Conegliano believed in her.
On January 7, Fahr appeared as a starter in the first two sets of Imoco’s straight-set win at Volley Bergamo 1991 and contributed six points, including five kills in attack at a 50% success rate. In the team’s next league game, she started in the first three sets of a four-set home win over e-work Busto Arsizio and scored the same number of points, only this time her rate in attack was already up to 63%. Fahr improved it even further to 75% when she played among Imoco’s main seven in all four sets of the home victory over Megabox Ondulati Del Savio Vallefoglia last Saturday. Her match tally also went up to reach double digits – 11 points (nine spikes, two blocks).
In Imoco’s Coppa Italia quarterfinal on Tuesday, Fahr showed that her blocking performance was also undergoing improvement. During the three sets of the team’s win over Cuneo Granda S.Bernardo, she put away as many as five stuffs towards a total tally of eight points.
Sarah’s next chance to test her progress will come in Saturday’s first cup semifinal, when the Panthers take on Igor Gorgonzola Novara at 18:30 local time (17:30 UTC) at the Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno near Bologna. If they win, they will continue the defence of the trophy on Sunday at 18:00 (17:00).
Sarah was born in Germany, but when she was two years old her family moved to Italy. At the age of 10, she committed to volleyball joining her first youth team. Before joining the national federation’s Club Italia for talented young Italian athletes in 2017, she competed for Novara’s youth team in Serie B1.
With the Italian age-category national teams, Fahr earned several medals and individual awards, most notably gold and Best Middle Blocker at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U18 World Championship, gold and MVP at the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival, and gold and Best Middle Blocker at the 2018 CEV U19 European Championship.
In 2018, at the age of 16, Fahr also made her debut for the senior national team. Later that year, she was part of the squad that won silver at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship. In 2019, she added a EuroVolley bronze to her collection, and in 2021, she competed at the Tokyo Olympics.
Fahr started her professional club career in the 2019-2020 season with Il Bisonte Firenze and, since the following season, she has been a player of Imoco, earning a golden quadruple in the CEV Champions League and the three Italian domestic competitions in 2020-2021, before the knee started troubling her.
Coppa Italia A1 Frecciarossa Final Four schedule:
Jan 28, 18:30 local (17:30 UTC): Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano v Igor Gorgonzola Novara
Jan 28, 21:00 local (20:00 UTC): Volley Bergamo 1991 v Vero Volley Milano
Jan 29, 18:00 local (17:00 UTC): Final
