The national team season kicks off and for Julio Velasco, called to replace Davide Mazzanti on the bench of the women’s team, the time has come to return to the gym. The appointment is Monday 8 April at the Pavesi Center in Milan where the first sixteen athletes called by the Italian-Argentine coach will gather throughout the week. With the playoffs still in full swing, the call-ups are limited to players who have already finished the season as the coach explains: “We start the activity with the athletes who did not make it to the playoffs and with those eliminated in the quarter-finals. The next The call-up will see the addition of the players who emerged in the semi-finals and, again based on the progress of the play-offs, there will be a third and fourth group after the conclusion of the championship and the Champions League Superfinal. My idea is to leave all the girls a week’s rest from the last match played. The main criterion of these calls is to choose athletes who play as starters in their clubs, while I have not called those who do not play. There may be exceptions, but only in case they need to a certain role”.
goal games
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In this period the women’s national team will work to best prepare for the Volleyball Nations League, a key event for obtaining qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In the group phase of the international tournament, in fact, the last useful points of the world ranking for the five-circle pass. The Italians will make their debut in the VNL in Antalya (Turkey) from 14 to 18 May, before taking the field in Macao (from 29 to 2 June) and finally in Fukuoka (Japan) from 11 to 16 June. The Women’s Finals of the Volleyball Nations League will be played in Bangkok (Thailand) from 20 to 23 June 2024. “Our goal is to be ready for the first round of the VNL, in which the players involved in the Champions League Superfinal will not be present, unless specific needs. In the second stage in Macau, however, we will present ourselves with the full team as in Japan. We all know the importance of this tournament, considering the fact that it will assign the last points in the world ranking useful for qualifying for Paris 2024” .
you summon them
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Carlotta Cambi, Yasmina Akrari, Ilenia Moro (Wash4green Pinerolo); Martina Bracchi, Rebecca Piva, Benedetta Sartori (E-Work Busto Arsizio); Alice Degradi, Gaia Giovannini, Camilla Mingardi (Megabox Ond. Savio Vallefoglia); Giulia Gennari, Stella Nervini (Volley Bergamo 1991); Emma Graziani, Mazzaro Alessia (Il Bisonte Firenze); Sylvia Nwakalor (Toray Arrows); Loveth Omoruyi and Ilaria Spirito from 10 April (Reale Mutua Fenera Chieri).
