Lega Pallavolo Femminile Teams Preview – Part 2

The 2023 international volleyball season came to an end for the women this past weekend, when the 24 best national teams on the planet competed in the Volleyball Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

The top international players will all soon be back in action, now with their club teams, as national leagues are about to start around the world. Many of them will be competing at the Italian Lega Pallavolo Femminile Serie A1, which is vastly considered the top national league on the planet and will, for a third-straight season, have all matches streamed live on VBTV.

• Watch Lega Pallavolo Serie A1 matches live on VBTV.

The first matches of the 2023-2024 season will take place on October 7 and there’s been a lot of movement between players since the end of their last campaign. To help you keep up-to-date on what each team looks like before they first get on the court, we’ve prepared a preview covering all of them. Part one was posted earlier this week, so here is all the information you need on the other seven sides that will fight for the Lega Femminile title:

Reale Mutua Fenera Chieri

Chieri fell to Novara in the first round of the playoffs last season and ended in seventh place – the team also triumphed at the CEV Challenge Cup. Coming into 2023-2024, the club went through changes in some key areas, adding Italian national team setter Ofelia Malinov to replace Francesca Bosio and signing American Avery Skinner and Italians Loveth Omoruyi and Valeria Papa at outside hitter, a position where they lost Polish Olivia Różański, French Héléna Cazaute and Italian Francesca Villani. Belgian Kaja Grobelna continues at opposite, Illaria Spirito remains the starting libero and German Camilla Weitzel and Italian Fatim Kone are the main options in the middle after the departures of American Brionne Butler and Italian Alessia Mazzaro.

Roma Volley Club

The Italian second division champions last season, Roma will compete in the country’s elite for the first time. The team felt the need to bring more experienced players to compete against the best Italian sides and added Brazilian Olympic medalist middle blocker Ana Beatriz ‘Bia’ Correa and explosive Dutch opposite/outside hitter Celeste Plak, as well as young Cuban opposite Dezirett Madan. Veteran Marta Bechis continues as the team’s starting setter – besides her, Roma also kept Albanian opposite Erblira Bici, Spanish outside hitter Jessica Rivero and Italian outside hitter Giulia Melli.

Savino Del Bene Scandicci

Savino Del Bene were third in the Italian League last season, falling to Milano in the semifinals, but lifted the trophy of the CEV Cup. The team lost several pieces, such as setters Di Yao and Ofelia Malinov, opposite Camilla Mingardi, outside hitter Elena Pietrini, middle blocker Yvon Beliën and libero Brenda Castillo, but also made several additions and somehow remains just as competitive. Among the most impressive signings were Serbian star setter Maja Ognjenović, Belgian high-scoring outside hitter Britt Herbots and Brazilian middle blocker Ana Carolina ‘Carol’ da Silva. Pairing these three with returning opposite Ekaterina Antropova, Chinese superstar Ting Zhu and American Olympic champion middle blocker Haleigh Washington, Savino Del Bene continue with a stellar squad.

Trasportipesanti Casalmaggiore

Casalmaggiore’s fifth-place finish last season was their best result in the Lega Femminile since 2016-2017. For this season, the team signed two Americans – Olympic champion setter Micha Hancok and up-and-coming outside hitter Breana Edwards – but saw another two – outside hitter Alexandra Frantti and setter Lauren Carlini – depart. Also leaving the team were Bulgarian opposite Emiliya Dimitrova and Brazilian outside hitter Ellen Braga, who were replaced by Polish Malwina Smarzek and Venezuelan Roslandy Acosta, respectively. Dutch Juliët Lohuis continues in the middle while Chiara De Bortoli also keeps her starting spot at libero.

Uyba Volley Busto Arsizio

Busto couldn’t handle Conegliano in the opening round of the playoffs and ended their campaign in eighth place last year. The team underwent a significant revamp ahead of the start of the season and will look very different and much younger after American setter Carly Lloyd, Brazilian opposite Rosamaria Montibeller, German veteran Lena Stigrot and Italian outside hitters Alice Degradi and Loveth Omoruyi all departed. Chinese libero Simin Wang and American outside hitter T’ara Cesar were the only international signings made by Busto, who will also put their faith in players who had success with the Italian youth national teams, such as outside hitter Dominika Giuliani and opposite Giorgia Frosini.

Volley Bergamo 1991

Back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016-2017, Bergamo were stopped by Savino Del Bene and ended the season in sixth place in their last campaign. Despite losing American outside hitter Khalia Lanier to Imoco, the team did a good job in the transfer market, adding a strong group of outside hitters that includes Polish Olivia Różański, Belarusian Hanna Davyskiba and Italian Stella Nervini. Bergamo were also able to maintain Italian setter Giulia Gennari, Brazilian opposite Lorrayna Marys and Croatian middle blocker Božana Butigan and will have a strong core to start the season.

Wash4Green Pinerolo

Pinerolo passed the test in their first season in the Italian elite, finishing tenth and securing their permanence in the Lega Femminile for another year. Pinerolo had to deal with some departures at the end of last season, with Italian setter Vittoria Prandi, Italian opposite Valentina Zago, Chinese opposite Yiwen Miao and Polish libero Martyna Grajber-Nowakowska being the most meaningful ones, but they also made some interesting incoming moves, adding some significant experience with Italian setter Letizia Camera, Swiss opposite Maja Storck, Italian outside hitter Indre Sorokaite and Dutch middle blocker Tessa Poulder.

Quick links:
Lega Pallavolo Femminile Serie A1
VBTV
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