Italy - Serie A1 2023/24

    Scandicci and Milano played friendly match.
    Scandicci won it in tie break 15:13.


    Zhu in full power :white:

    Especially the seasons: 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, there was total domination of Italian clubs (in 2005 there was final: Bergamo-Novara). In those seasons they won 6/6 European Cups: Champions League, Cev Cup and Top Teams Cup. Earlier, at the beginning of the 21st century Uralochka and Cannes were able to fight but not only them. Champions League in 2004 won Marichal Tenerife in the final against Perugia (Swieniewicz was injured during the match and Chiara di Julio was unable to replace her). Then until 2010 Italians regulary won European Cups (mainly with clubs from Russia: Dinamo, Odintsovo etc) but clubs from Turkey had larger budgets - this trend started by Fenerbahce in 2008. Champions League final in 2010: Bergamo-Fenerbahce 3-2 it was the last victory of the Italian club in the Champions League for many years. Even then the Turks had a much higher budget.


    Btw, Who today remember such names as: Cermagica Reggio Emilia, Medinex Reggio Calabria? Foppapedretti Bergamo stayed at the top the longest time: from the mid-1990s until 2010 (the last win in the Champions League). Teodora Ravenna dominated earlier but I wasn't interested in sports at that time - I was too young.

    Quote from Arii

    If you click on the link is says the dad of one of the council members of Savino passed away.

    If I click on the link on my phone it takes me to the main site ;)

    If Zhu can perform like in her best days, I do believe Scandicci is gone be at top. They for sure have chance.

    Novara and Eczacibasi played friendly match, and Novara won it 3:1. (27:25, 25:18, 19:25, 25:16)


    Novara was almost completly, only Russian OPP didn’t play Akimova.


    On another hand Eczacibasi was missing Boskovic, Hande and Gray.

    Bujis looks like She is in lifetime shape, She playing really good. I hope She can keep her form throw whole season. :white:


    If Akimova can reach hel potential Novara is among top 4 for sure.

    I remember ituma (RIP) played good at friendly tournaments last season and at Serie A was not that

    I hope it doesn't happen with buijs


    Also she was one of first players to join the club so let's see if she can keep it well

    Considering the first round is just a few hours away, I thought it could have been fun to share some season predictions to determine how the 2023-2024 Serie A1 season would play out. In order to simplify things, I put the teams into four tiers (fight for Scudetto, fight for CEV competitions, mid-table and relegation battle).


    FIGHT FOR SCUDETTO


    Once again it's Conegliano against everyone. The defending champions changed very little compared to last year and while it might be a good thing at the beginning, when the main rivals like Milano and Scandicci could still be working on their automatisms, on the long term it may be a bit limiting considering how bad their European campaign turned out to be and how close the Scudetto series was. That's why I'm very curious to see how they'll use Lanier and how she'll fit in Santarelli's system. Their passing will be a key factor too: I don't know if Robinson and De Gennaro would have to work overtime this season, but a lot of their chances of achieving another treble will rely on how their back row will hold against strong serving.


    The main contender (and to some maybe even the real favourite) is obviously Milano: it could not be otherwise for a team that has in its starting lineup Paola Egonu and Brenda Castillo. It's up to Marco Gaspari to finally make it happen for Alessandra Marzari's club after getting closer and closer to the big prize in the past seasons: despite Larson is not around Palalido anymore, they invested a lot to add solutions in the OH position and didn't go cheap with MB too. If they sort the rotations out and keep the game balanced and steady, thus putting Orro in a position to play simplier, they can make life difficult for anyone. Overall depth might not be the best, but they should be fine for the crucial appointments.


    Scandicci is not that far from the previous two teams: once again they're loaded and ready to have another go for the title, but among the Big Three they're the ones I have the most question marks. Ognjenović is an amazing player but at almost 40 she need to run the least possible and on paper Scandicci is all but a receiving-oriented team. If the fundamental will be even remotely passable tough, they're scary: Herbots, Zhu Ting, Antropova are all very prolific attackers, Ruddins and Villani are ready if they're needed and Carol is huge boost for their blocking. It's not very likely, but it would be nice to see Armini, Diop and Nwakalor get some playing time over the course of the season too.


    FIGHT FOR CEV COMPETITIONS


    After their worst season in the last six years, Novara will kick off the 2023-2024 campaign as a very different team compared to the previous seasons: Stefano Lavarini's era comes to an abrupt end and it comes to Mister Secolo, a.k.a. as Lorenzo Bernardi, to bring the Zanzare back to the top. It won't be an easy task, because among the several bets Novara made the second one that stands out after the coach is Vita Akimova. The young Russian is very talented but at just 21 and with little experience with such demanding tournaments she shouldn't be pressured to be the saviour straight off the bat. Orthmann's injury just adds more hazards to the road of a team that seems to lack what is needed to seriously put itself in the title contention. Among the other things, I wonder if Bosio's game with the MB will improve compared to NT season. Challenge Cup is obviously one of the goals of the season, but there's chance of an early exit considering that they're dealing with lots of injuries right now and their first opponent is Casalmaggiore.


    Speaking about CEV competitions, Chieri is a team that doesn't start headlights off like the past years but still is looking to do very well: compared to last season they changed a bit of their core, but I believe they made some interesting choices without losing competitiveness. Malinov is coming off a very rough time but if there's a place where she can bounce back is definitely Chieri: there's good mix of young talents and established players and Bregoli is a very scrupulous coach. I'm looking forward to see Skinner and Weitzel continue their development, pity that Omoruyi is injured and won't start the season at her best. Depending on how deep their CEV Cup run will be, they might play some tricks to the bigger teams once again.


    Even though Carlini, Frantti and Nikolova all left and Pistola joined Vallefoglia, Casalmaggiore is still a team that has the potential to follow a very similar path as the one they had last season. Hancock may be a bit of downgrade, but she should be able to run the team effectively: Smarzek, Edwards and Acosta isn't too shabby as a pool of guns and maybe even Cagnin may join the party. I'm curious to see how Lohuis-Manfredini coupling will work too, the potential to be a factor is there. As I said before, one among them and Novara will probaly be the next Challenge Cup title holder.


    I feel like this will be the most controversial take, but I'll go for it: Megabox will make the playoffs and earn a spot for the 2024-2025 CEV competitions. Dijkema and Košeleva are past their prime but in the right context they can still deliver. Panetoni and Mingardi are solid option for their respective position too and don't forget about Aleksić. Plus, I'm sure Pistola will get the best out of Degradi, Gardini and Giovannini.


    MID-TABLE


    It's actually, paradoxically, the tier I had the more trouble with, because all these teams can easily go up or down for such small details.


    Starting from Firenze, after a bit disappointing 2022-2023 season they completely retooled their roster, confirming the lone Emma Graziani among the players and the coach Carlo Parisi. Wanny Di Filippo went after a young core once again and with Ishikawa, Alsmeier, Stivrins, Cesé and Ribechi they can be a fun team to watch. One of the main limits of this group might rely in fact in how quickly they'll find the right chemistry, but I'm sure that having Giulia Leonardi as "mother hen" will be helpful in that regard. Another aspect to consider is Kraiduba: I don't know the Ukrainian that well, but I'm still quite surprised that they didn't sign another player for the position.


    It's difficult to do well, to repeat it's twice as difficult and I believe in Bergamo they're all well aware of it. While the roster it's more or less the same in terms of talent, it's hard to determine how big the impact of both Różański and Davyskiba will be and how the Fitzmorris-Lorrayna battle for the starting spot will turn out. That's why I think they'll do a little worse compared to last season. On a side note, congratulations to Federica Stufi, I hope everything will go well for her and the baby!


    Similar to Firenze, Cuneo is coming from a troublesome season and they'll try to rebuild around Bellano's abilities to work with youngsters and Signorile's experience. They kept Stevenson and with Sylves they can form a solid MB duo. Kubik is a good signing in a rather average OH pool, but I'm more curious to see if Adelusi can keep the level of play she had in the preseason and Enweonwu has completely recovered from the serious injury she suffered last season.


    RELEGATION BATTLE


    After the great escape of last year, Pinerolo tried to invest a bit in order to enjoy a more relaxed season. I think the they should be more than fine to avoid relegation, but the result it's a bit weird to be honest. I mean, it's good to have Cambi-Camera as setters and Storck-Németh when your main goal is to stay in Serie A1, but I would've done something different both on MB and OH positions, where they can experience the too-short-blanket-problem.


    The biggest rebus of the season is Busto Arsizio, no question about it: huge cut to the budget, huge gamble with the signings of Julio Velasco and many young players with little to no experience to top-tier Italian volleyball (Boldini, Bracchi, Carletti, Frosini, Giuliani, Piva, Sartori). It could end either horribly wrong or extraordinary well, but even in the worst-case scenario they should have just enough to avoid descent into the underworld of Serie A2.


    That brings us to the newly promoted teams, which by definition are the prime focus when it comes to relegation battle. I'm not surprised that both Roma and Trento kept the core of their teams, but while Trento didn't look too bad in the preseason, Roma really seemed a team very far away from what is needed to stay alive. Both teams have some names in their rosters (Bia and Plak for Roma, Ščerban' and Olivotto for Trento), but they better hope that the name isn't the only things these players will bring to the respective side.

    For me this year it has to be Milano’s year in Seria A1 and CEV as well. Since they got Egonu they should be the favorite, they may have found the missing ingredient, Conegliano will be their main challenger in Seria A1, and they may finally able to pass QF stage in CEV. If this year like the last two, they meet VB and lose in QF again, I will brand them as a hopeless case. For CEV Ezacibasi and Fener looks very strong on the paper. So, we should have nice matches between Milano, Ezacibasi, Fener, Scandicci, Conegliano, and VB. The usual suspects!!!