Fukuoka, June 16 – QFourth victory in a row for women’s Italvolley in ‘week 3’ of the Volleyball Nations League. Julio Velasco’s girls beat Serbia 3 to 1 (set: 25-20; 20-25; 25-23; 25-22) in Fukuoka, Japan. In recent days the Italians had already defeated Canada, South Korea and the United States, and above all secured qualification for the Paris Olympics and the VNL finals on 20-23 June in Bangkok. Italy concluded the intercontinental phase with 10 victories and 2 defeats and, while waiting to know their first round opponent at the finals, they could present themselves as second or third seed. Against the Serbs, Velasco gave space to players who had previously played less. Two top scorers from Italy, Ekaterina Antropova and Alice Degradi with 17 points followed by Sara Bonifacio with 11 and Gaia Giovannini with 10. Today the 12 nations participating in the women’s Olympic tournament were defined. The last five passes were defined based on the world ranking: after Italy, they also ticketed Paris China, Japan, Holland and Kenya (Africa share). They were already qualified, France (Host country), Dominican Republic, Serbia, Türkiye, Brazil, United States and Poland. The draw for the composition of the three Olympic groups of the women’s tournament will be held in Bangkok on Wednesday 19th at 1pm Italian time. France will be assigned Pool A while the first and second placed teams in the world ranking will be placed in Pools B and C respectively, as the number 2 and 3 seeds.
