The four best-ranked teams in the 2025-2026 Lega Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà, Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano, Savino Del Bene Scandicci, Igor Gorgonzola Novara and Reale Mutua Fenera Chieri '76 advanced to the semifinals of the Coppa Italia Frecciarossa on Tuesday.

After winning their quarterfinal matches, the four sides are set to make the trip to Torino, which will host the tournament's Final Four on January 24-25. Conegliano and Novara face in one of the semifinals, with Scandicci and Chieri clashing for the other spot in the final.

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Reigning world champions Scandicci were pushed hard by Megabox Ondulati Del Savio Vallefoglia in the quarterfinals and needed all five sets to triumph 3-2 (25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 18-16) and continue to fight for their first Coppa Italia title.

Star opposite Ekaterina Antropova was huge for Scandicci, leading the team with 29 points (26 kills, two aces, one block). American outside hitter Avery Skinner dropped 16 (15 kills, one block), one more than middle blocker Linda Nwakalor, who produced nine kills and six blocks. Vallefoglia's Albanian opposite Erblira Bici led all scorers with 31 points (30 kills, one ace).

"I'm very happy because Vallefoglia are in great form and we're at the end of a tough series of matches, but still managed to win," head coach Marco Gaspari commented. "We played very well in the first two sets and in part of the third, but then we made some mistakes and our physical limitations made things very difficult. But the players deserve a lot of credit because they never stopped believing and fighting."

Their next opponents, Chieri also had to play a tie-breaker in their last match of 2025 in order to secure their spot in the Final Four for the fourth time in club history. They hosted Eurotek Laica UYBA Busto Arsizio and came back twice to win 3-2 (25-27, 25-22, 25-27, 25-20, 15-8).

Laura Dervisaj-Künzler and Anett Németh combined to produce 50 points for Chieri, with the Swiss outside hitter tallying 27 (25 kills, one block, one ace) and the Hungarian opposite adding 23 (22 kills, one block). On Busto's side, opposite Josephine Obossa was the only one to surpass 20 points, getting to 23 with 20 kills and three blocks.

"We came to this match full of energy," said outside hitter Stella Nervini. "We did a great job of not giving up even when the situation seemed desperate. That showed our strenght and now we'll go for the Final Four."

Novara knock Milano out

Four-time Coppa Italia champions Novara had a tough draw in the quarterfinals, meeting Supercoppa Italiana winners Numia Vero Volley Milano, and showed strength after dropping the first set to come back and advance with a 3-1 (21-25, 26-24, 25-19, 25-18) victory.

Russian opposite Tatiana Tolok was unstoppable for Novara, registering 25 points (20 kills, five aces), while Japanese outside hitter Mayu Ishikawa and middle blocker Federica Squarcini contributed 14 and 12, respectively. Milano's star opposite Paola Egonu was the match's top scorer with 27 points (25 kills, one block, one ace).

"I'm very proud of the team for how we played against a very strong opponent, which came into this match in great form," libero Giulia De Nardi reacted. "We couldn't play in the way we wanted in the first set, but responded very well to it and our performance kept getting better as our enthusiasm increased."

The fourth semifinalists, Conegliano, who won the last six editions of the tournament and accumulate seven titles, also started behind in the quarterfinals, trailing Bergamo in the first set, but found their best form and charged forward with a 3-1 (26-28, 25-21, 25-14, 25-23) win.

Swedish star opposite Isabelle Haak was Conegliano's go-to scorer in the match, ending the match with 28 points (26 kills, one block, one ace), more than outside hitter Gabriela 'Gabi' Guimarães (15) and middle blocker Sarah Fahr (11) combined. Bergamo had American outside hitter Jennifer Mosser as their leading scorer, with 16 points (15 kills, one ace).

"We're very happy," Fahr said. "We needed a result like this to improve our morale after some recent setbacks. We didn't start well, but did a good job after the first set. The Coppa Italia is an important tournament for us, and it's great to be in the Final Four again."

The four semifinalists will be back in action in the Italian League this weekend. The first two matches of the fifth leg of the second round of the regular season will take place on Saturday, January 3, and the remaining five will happen on the next day.

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