Italian fans will have a taste of what’s to come in the 2024-2025 Lega Volley Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà when four of the top teams in the country compete in the Courmayeur Cup preseason tournament this weekend.

Defending champions Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano, Numia Vero Volley Milano, Igor Gorgonzola Novara and Savino Del Bene Scandicci will be in action between Friday and Saturday, taking their star-studded rosters to compete at the Courmayeur Sport Center.

• Watch the Courmayeur Cup live on VBTV

The two-day tournament will start with the semifinals on Friday, when Milano will face Scandicci at 17:30 local time (15:30 GMT) and Imoco will meet Novara three hours later in rematches of last year’s Lega Femminile’s semifinals. The medal matches will be held on Saturday, at the same times.

Besides serving as the stage for debuts to the several players signed by the four Italian giants, the tournament will also be a celebration of the country’s successful campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics as eight of the 13 players that won gold last month at the French capital will be on the court.

Imoco, who won their two matches at last weekend’s season-opening Trofeo Citta’ di Conegliano tournament, have Brazilian star outside hitter Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães, Chinese superstar Zhu Ting and Polish Olympian Martyna Łukasic as their main signings for 2024-2025.

The Panthers also kept setter Joanna Wołosz, opposite Isabelle Haak and their three Olympic champions – libero Monica De Gennaro and middle blockers Sarah Fahr and Marina Lubian -, giving head coach Daniele Santarelli a strong roster to work with.

Their semifinal opponents, Novara had mixed results ahead of the Courmayeur Cup, beating Volley Bergamo and falling to Milano in friendly matches. The team coached by Lorenzo Bernardi focused their efforts in the transfer market mainly on two positions, bringing Germans Lina Alsmeier and Hanna Orthmann, Japanese Mayu Ishikawa and Russian Tatiana Tolok at outside hitter and adding Serbian Maja Aleksić and Italians Alessia Mazzaro and Federica Squarcini in the middle.

“Our goal is to compete with the top teams in the league and fight with all we have to get good results,” Alsmeier reflected. “We are facing some challenges at the start of the season, but are adapting and trying to find the formation that gives us the best results.”

Milano, who topped Novara in their only match of the season so far, have a new coach in Stefano Lavarini, and will also see change at the libero position, where France’s Juliette Gelin and Japan’s Satomi Fukudome will fight for a starting spot, and in the middle, where Italian national team captain Anna Danesi and Serbian Olympian Hena Kurtagić were brought.

Danesi, who is in her second stint with the team, is one of four Olympic champions in the squad, alongside opposite Paola Egonu, setter Alessia Orro and outside hitter Miriam Sylla.

“Our victory with the national team in Paris showed how important patience is,” Orro commented. “Paola, Miriam, Anna and I will try to transmit serenity to the team in the difficult moments as only this way we’ll be able to play at our best in the moments of pressure.”

Scandicci have been successful in their three preseason matches, beating Bartoccini-Mc Restauri Perugia twice and Megabox Ondulati Del Savio Vallefoglia once.

Led by a new head coach in French Stéphane Antiga, they kept the pillars of the team that played in the Lega Femminile final for the first time last season, such as Serbian setter Maja Ognjenović, Italian opposite Ekaterina Antropova, Brazilian middle blocker Ana Carolina ‘Carol’ da Silva and Belgian outside hitter Britt Herbots, but also made interesting additions, bringing Dominican libero Brenda Castillo, American outside hitter Kara Bajema and Italian opposite Camilla Mingardi.

“We’re all excited to start a new work with Scandicci,” Antiga said. “Players continued to arrive as our preseason progressed and we tried to work well and get to know each other very well to be ready for the season.”

Courmayeur Cup

Semifinals – September 20

17:30 – Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano vs. Igor Gorgonzola Novara

20:30 – Numia Vero Volley Milano vs. Savino Del Bene Scandicci

Medal Matches – September 21

17:30 – Bronze Medal Match

20:30 – Gold Medal Match