Savino Del Bene, hunting for the tricolor. The race for history begins in Treviso

After Uisp Sesto Fiorentino in 1964, the second Italian team in the history of women’s volleyball in Tuscany was Valdagna Scandicci which won three consecutive titles from 1974 to 1976. Now, almost half a century later, another Tuscan team: the Savino Del Bene – also from Scandicci – is once again in the running for the scudetto having finished the regular season in second place and having stopped in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup and in the quarter-finals of the Cev Champions League after having won the Challenge and the Cev Cup. The first match of the finals – it will be played with the best of three matches out of five – is scheduled for tonight, starting at 8.30 pm at the Palaverde in Villorba, Treviso (live on Rai Sport, Sky Sport and vbtv), against one of the best in the world: Imoco Volley Conegliano, multiple outgoing champions having won the last five titles and six in seven years. And which, this season, has already won its sixth Italian Cup and seventh Super Cup, and on May 5th in Antalya (Turkey) it will face Milan in the Champions League final. Savino del Bene, however, also reaches the finish with a respectable roadmap: 12 consecutive victories between the regular season and the Scudetto play-offs in which they eliminated Milan in the semi-final, and with high morale for having achieved a goal that they have been chasing for years.

Barbolini confirms this: “Aside from the fact that it is the first time for this club, reaching a Scudetto final is the best one can hope for at the end of a championship, so we face these finals with great enthusiasm, with a great desire to do well and with the belief that we will arrive at this match in good condition, both physically and in terms of playing.” Savino Del Bene’s coach is realistic and closes: “At the same time we are aware that we are playing against a team that needs no introduction, a team that has won five consecutive championships and that loses once every 40-50 games, however she is an opponent that we must absolutely face head on.”

It will be a great challenge in which each department will have to give their all. Starting from the opposite, with two at the top of the rankings: Antropova on one side and the former Haak (in Scandicci from 2017 to 2019) on the other; also in the direction of champions such as Ognjenovic and Wolosz. Then Carol and Nwakalor in the centre, against Lubian (another ex) and Fahr to raise the wall, and the rams Zhu Ting, Herbots and Ruddins with Plummer and Robinson beyond the net to chip to the ground. Without forgetting the two liberos, Parrocchiale and De Gennaro, who will also have an overwork this evening, and the others to be brought in when needed.