Italy - Serie A1 2023/24

    since end of regular season I saw savino with good team work and spirit...in qf they dominated totally and today also

    Folie ones again 6 blocks in 3sets with 12points in total…


    She is in such a great shape.

    Milano was terrible sure, but Scandicci needs some credit for that as well. Their block touches and defence were great as well as their attacks in transition. I feel like the only thing they struggled with was their passing and Herbots not being present today.

    Even attacks that weren’t kills were free balls in return, I think they did pretty good job.


    Milano on the other hand really struggled to score and was taking much bigger risks because blockers of Scandicci were doing amazing job and as much as Parocchiale sucked on reception she was really good in defending field that wasnmt covered by block. There were like 20 balls that were touched so well in block that they seemed like free balls for Scandicci in transition.

    I'm not suprised about Scandicci's win per se, but about the entity. Milano surely paid the terrible day Egonu experienced, but overall they seemed to struggle to find continuity on offence. Folie being the go-to-girl at the beginning of the thrid set was symptomatic of the struggle. Coming to Scandicci, they kind of played a Fenerbahçesque game: a lot of emphasis in putting pressure at serve and going for a power volleyball style. Nice match for Antropova, she definitelyoutplayed Egonu (and in front of Velasco moreover) today.

    Scandicci’s attack is still the weakest part of their game. I can’t recall any game that they had all their attackers playing on their best level together. Their attack in this match was still worse than Milano, even when Milano’s attackers were also far from good. Scandicci could win this match mainly because of the endless errors from Milano side, and their own better serving.


    Antropova 15/31

    Zhu 10/21

    Linda 3/7

    Ruddins 3/10

    Herbots 1/14:gone:

    Carol 1/7:gone:


    If Egonu chose to compete, with these awful attacking stats except Zhu & Antropova, the result would be completely different.

    Scandicci rarely showed a great coral game, but today relying on Antropova and Zhu Ting payed off. I don't think they can close the series if they will keep playing like that (and history of the season clearly showed that when Milano plays even marginally better than today, they win), but at the same time it's not great for Milano to be so dependant on Egonu and still so messy at this point of the season.

    From quick glance I saw that Malual was wearing the libero jersey, is she slightly injured? Or were they not even considering the fact that Egonu could have an off-day/let Nika(?) play opposite in that case? I'm happy to see Pusic got backrow duties in normal jersey though, but imo Malual did great in the matches she was starting so I wouldn't have picked her for libero jersey.

    Quote from side.out

    Scandicci rarely showed a great coral game, but today relying on Antropova and Zhu Ting payed off. I don't think they can close the series if they will keep playing like that (and history of the season clearly showed that when Milano plays even marginally better than today, they win)

    Agree

    Quote from side.out

    but at the same time it's not great for Milano to be so dependant on Egonu and still so messy at this point of the season.

    Quote from Sassy

    From quick glance I saw that Malual was wearing the libero jersey, is she slightly injured? Or were they not even considering the fact that Egonu could have an off-day/let Nika(?) play opposite in that case? I'm happy to see Pusic got backrow duties in normal jersey though, but imo Malual did great in the matches she was starting so I wouldn't have picked her for libero jersey.

    It’s just Gaspari doing Gaspari thing, just like he benched Rettke for no reason after she being a beast in attack this season.

    Akimova shouldn’t be on bench. She is very good on her good days and I think once her injuries are healed she’ll continue on her way to becoming elite. Novara needs Markova and her both on court to get this done

    Quote from Cofi

    These commentators are basically just American fan club at this point.. not to mention they have minimal knowledge about any other player on court

    If you speak a little bit of Italian and have a VPN, you could give a try to Rai broadcast: Marco Fantasia and Giulia Pisani aren't bad at all. Coming to the game, Bernardi tried to insist with Markova at opposite, but it didn't work out as planned I'm afraid.