Down 2-0, the team needs to win on the road to prevent their opponents from taking the title and keep the series open
Published 05:02, 21 Apr 2025
Middle blockers Sarah Fahr and Hena Kurtagić battle at the net during the second match of the series (Photo: Lega Femminile)
Leading the 2024-2025 Lega Volley Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà Scudetto Finals 2-0, Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano are on pace to secure their seventh-straight and eighth-overall Italian title, but Numia Vero Volley Milano will try a last move to keep their own dream of winning gold alive.
The teams will meet for the third and potentially last time on Tuesday, at 20:30 local time (18:30 GMT), at the Palaverde, in Villorba, and only a Milano victory would keep the series open.
Down 2-0 in the series and having lost their last 14 matches to Conegliano, Milano know they will need to bring something different to the court to beat their opponents for the first time since May 2023. According to head coach Stefano Lavarini, it’s on the mental side of the game that his team can finally find what’s been missing to triumph against the reigning world champions.
“We need to take more responsibility, to take more risks and to remain mentally steady in the key moments of sets,” he said. “We’ve been ahead of them in some moments, but we need to capitalize on these situations. Last match, we played very well in the first three quarters of the first two sets, but then we lacked something to get it done. I don’t think we’re missing anything tactically or technically; the next step needs to come on the mental side. We don’t need to invent anything, just be more determined and focused in the key moments.”
For Milano to have a chance on Tuesday, star opposite Paola Egonu will need to continue delivering as she’s been in the first two matches. The MVP of last year’s Paris Olympics, she was the top scorer of both matches of the Finals so far, scoring 52 points across both encounters.
For Conegliano, Tuesday’s match brings not only the opportunity for the team to continue to dominate Italian women’s volleyball, becoming just the second club to win seven straight titles, but also the first chance for them to crown a historic effort, in which they produced the best-ever campaign of the Italian League regular season, with the gold medals.
After winning the FIVB Women’s Club World Championship, the Italian Supercup and the Coppa Italia this season and beating Milano in all three tournaments, the Panthers find themselves in a comfortable position to lift the Lega Femminile trophy again, but they are aware of the traps their situation could bring and are determined to avoid them.
“The biggest mistake we could make now would be to underestimate Milano,” head coach Daniele Santarelli warned. “We’ve seen their quality in these first two matches, and they’ve been playing very well in the final part of the season. They got the Finals determined to show they can compete with us. We played extremely well in the first two matches, but that’s in the past now. They have nothing else to lose, so we need to be ready for whatever alternatives they bring, but above anything, to focus on improving where we can and limiting our errors.”
Tuesday’s match will be special for star libero Monica de Gennaro, who will appear in a Conegliano jersey for a record 500th time in her career. A Paris Olympic champion, the 37-year-old libero, who has been with the club since 2013 and is the only player in the squad to have participated in their seven victories, could win her eighth Italian title with the club on the occasion.
If Milano manage to take Conegliano down on Tuesday, the following matches will be played on Friday, in Milano, and on Sunday, in Villorba.
Lega Volley Femmnilie – Match Schedule & Results
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