Italy - Serie A1 2025/26

Herbots is having good season. Novara just needed a decent OOS OH, even if worse in reception, because Cambi and Bosio are inconsistent to zone 4. They didn’t need an OH in the same style as their existing OHs in Herbots: strong all-around OH, good in system but not great on bad or OOS sets. It’s not just Alsmeier or Ishikawa being worse, usually all 3 struggle at the same time. They just didn't improve from last year and an A2 main Libero doesn't help.

Best players in Serie A based on attack efficiency since 2021 according to only LegaVolley.

🏐 Player Ranking – Attack Efficiency (%)

2021 – Paola Egonu — 46.0%

2024 Isabelle Haak -- 45.0%

2020 – Paola Egonu — 44.0%

2026 – Tatiana Tolok — 43.0%

2026 - Isabelle Haak - 43.0%

2023 – Isabelle Haak — 42.0%

2025 - Isabelle Haak - 39.0%

2026 - Paola Egonu - 39.0%

2024 - Ekaterina Antropova - 38.0%

2025 – Ekaterina Antropova — 37.0%

2024 – Paola Egonu — 35.3%

2025 - Paola Egonu - 32.0%

Quote from dnipro1

Best players in Serie A based on attack efficiency since 2014.

🏐 Player Ranking – Attack Efficiency (%)

2026 – Tatiana Tolok — 43.0%

2020 – Paola Egonu — 42.5%

2021 – Paola Egonu — 41.5%

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Is this just counting this year? If so, it's a bit misleading since we're 2.5 weeks into 2026 haha. Tolok is clearly world class I'm just wondering

Quote from dnipro1

Best players in Serie A based on attack efficiency since 2014.

🏐 Player Ranking – Attack Efficiency (%)

2026 – Tatiana Tolok — 43.0%

2020 – Paola Egonu — 42.5%

2021 – Paola Egonu — 41.5%

2024 – Isabelle Haak — 39.8%

2025 - Isabelle Haak - 39.0%

2023 – Isabelle Haak — 38.3%

2022 – Paola Egonu — 37.8%

2025 – Ekaterina Antropova — 37.0%

2024 – Paola Egonu — 35.3%

2018 – Paola Egonu — 34.7%

2025 - Paola Egonu - 32.0%

2018 – Isabelle Haak — 31.8%

2019 – Isabelle Haak — 31.1%

2017 – Samanta Fabris — 31.0%

2019 – Paola Egonu — 30.2%

2019 – Paola Egonu — 30.2%

2015 – Samanta Fabris — 30.0%

2017 – Katarina Barun-Sušnjar — 29.9%

2022 – Camilla Mingardi — 28.5%

2017 – Paola Egonu — 28.2%

2017 – Katarzyna Skowrońska — 27.6%

2016 – Samanta Fabris — 27.6%

2022 – Ebrar Karakurt — 25.6%

2016 – Karsta Lowe — 25.5%

2020 – Lise Van Hecke — 25.4%

2019 – Polina Rahimova — 24.8%

2017 – Valentina Diouf — 24.5%

2016 – Berenika Tomsia — 24.5%

2020 – Camilla Mingardi — 24.3%

2024 – Camilla Mingardi — 23.6%

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Haak has also 43% attack efficiency this season

Quote from dnipro1

Best players in Serie A based on attack efficiency since 2014.

🏐 Player Ranking – Attack Efficiency (%)

2026 – Tatiana Tolok — 43.0%

2020 – Paola Egonu — 42.5%

2021 – Paola Egonu — 41.5%

2024 – Isabelle Haak — 39.8%

2023 – Isabelle Haak — 38.3%

2022 – Paola Egonu — 37.8%

2025 – Ekaterina Antropova — 37.0%

2024 – Paola Egonu — 35.3%

2018 – Paola Egonu — 34.7%

2019 – Paola Egonu — 30.2%

2017 – Samanta Fabris — 31.0%

2018 – Isabelle Haak — 31.8%

2019 – Isabelle Haak — 31.1%

2015 – Samanta Fabris — 30.0%

2017 – Katarina Barun-Sušnjar — 29.9%

2022 – Camilla Mingardi — 28.5%

2017 – Paola Egonu — 28.2%

2017 – Katarzyna Skowrońska — 27.6%

2016 – Samanta Fabris — 27.6%

2019 – Polina Rahimova — 24.8%

2017 – Valentina Diouf — 24.5%

2016 – Berenika Tomsia — 24.5%

2020 – Lise Van Hecke — 25.4%

2016 – Karsta Lowe — 25.5%

2024 – Ekaterina Antropova — 25.4%

2022 – Ebrar Karakurt — 25.6%

2020 – Camilla Mingardi — 24.3%

2024 – Camilla Mingardi — 23.6%

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I don't think that this is a correct ranking, because sometimes it takes into account a proper attack efficiency ( (kills - attacks blocked - attack errors / number of attack attempts), sometimes it doesn't.

For Tolok, her attack efficiency is at 34.7% this season, still amazing, but not better than peak Egonu (42.5%) or Haak (43.5%). The attack efficiency numbers on legavolley site are flawed, because they only take direct errors as a measure, and I don't think that it is correct (e.g. 2.4% of Haak's attacks are blocked but it is 8.1% for Tolok this year; 7.1% of Haak's attacks are direct errors, 6.6% of Tolok's attacks are direct errors - obviously, both of these figures matter).

Quote from jaq

Is this just counting this year? If so, it's a bit misleading since we're 2.5 weeks into 2026 haha. Tolok is clearly world class I'm just wondering

All of the numbers are from the entire season except for Toloks, which are derived from her games up until this point. Of course, it might change within the course of the season, but her pace is on par with the best of all time according to the stats provided by LegaVolley.

Quote from Realista

I don't think that this is a correct ranking, because sometimes it takes into account a proper attack efficiency ( (kills - attacks blocked - attack errors / number of attack attempts), sometimes it doesn't.

For Tolok, her attack efficiency is at 34.7% this season, still amazing, but not better than peak Egonu (42.5%) or Haak (43.5%). The attack efficiency numbers on legavolley site are flawed, because they only take direct errors as a measure, and I don't think that it is correct (e.g. 2.4% of Haak's attacks are blocked but it is 8.1% for Tolok this year; 7.1% of Haak's attacks are direct errors, 6.6% of Tolok's attacks are direct errors - obviously, both of these figures matter).

I have used the Legavolley-website to gather data from the seasons of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Quote from dnipro1

I have used the Legavolley-website to gather data from the seasons of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Yeah, like I said, lega script is like 20 years old or so, I don't think anyone now counts attack efficiency this way. The best seasons since 2017 in terms of attack efficiency for the opposites (at least 350 attempts a year) would go like this:

Tolok is obviously super elite, but she's never had an opportunity to play in Conegliano system and she's not quite there yet, so hard to compare her to Haak or Egonu. And the other thing is number of kills, and so on.

ps

Since 2018/19* season.

Quote from dnipro1

I have used the Legavolley-website to gather data from the seasons of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

And as it is already mentioned on lega volley for efficiency it's considering only direct errors, nice effort but as usual on this forum, stats are used with at least one of the cherry picking or metrics manipulation. Tolok performance during this year is that good that she really doesnt need this.

Quote from Realista

Yeah, like I said, lega script is like 20 years old or so, I don't think anyone now counts attack efficiency this way. The best seasons since 2017 in terms of attack efficiency for the opposites (at least 350 attempts a year) would go like this:

Season	Player	Kills %	Attack efficiency
2024	Haak Isabelle	51,5%	43,5%
2020	Egonu Paola	54,4%	42,5%
2021	Egonu Paola	58,8%	41,5%
2026	Haak Isabelle	49,7%	40,2%
2023	Haak Isabelle	48,3%	38,3%
2022	Egonu Paola	51,2%	37,8%
2026	Antropova Ekaterina	47,5%	36,1%
2025	Haak Isabelle	44,1%	35,6%
2026	Egonu Paola	47,7%	35,2%
2026	Tolok Tatiana	49,4%	34,7%
2024	Antropova Ekaterina	45,4%	31,3%
2022	Antropova Ekaterina	44,0%	31,3%
2019	Fabris Samanta	43,1%	31,3%
2019	Haak Isabelle	41,7%	31,1%
2024	Egonu Paola	46,1%	30,5%
2019	Egonu Paola	46,6%	30,2%
2019	Smarzek Malwina	40,8%	30,1%
2023	Thompson Jordan	42,3%	30,0%
2023	Dimitrova Emiliya	41,5%	29,9%
2022	Mingardi Camilla	41,0%	28,5%
2020	Stysiak Magdalena	42,8%	28,4%
2019	Lippmann Louisa	41,0%	28,3%
2023	Antropova Ekaterina	43,6%	28,2%
2025	Antropova Ekaterina	44,7%	28,1%
2024	Smarzek Malwina	40,3%	27,9%
2022	Lippmann Louisa	39,5%	27,6%
2023	Grobelna Kaja	42,5%	27,5%
2026	Németh Anett	43,8%	27,5%
2024	Anthouli Martha Evdokia	37,3%	27,5%

Tolok is obviously super elite, but she's never had an opportunity to play in Conegliano system and she's not quite there yet, so hard to compare her to Haak or Egonu. And the other thing is number of kills, and so on.

ps

Since 2018/19* season.

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Based on that ranking, Haak is even better than I thought. I didnt know she was more efficient than peak Egonu.

Quote from Bogdan

And as it is already mentioned on lega volley for efficiency it's considering only direct errors, nice effort but as usual on this forum, stats are used with at least one of the cherry picking or metrics manipulation. Tolok performance during this year is that good that she really doesnt need this.

I don't think it was a cherry picking or manipulation from dnipro1 , it's on Legavolley websites that they haven't updated their scripts since forever, it can be really confusing when you have different formulas on different sources with the same 'attack efficiency' label.

Quote from dnipro1

Based on that ranking, Haak is even better than I thought. I didnt know she was more efficient than peak Egonu.

Yeah, Haak is a goddess in terms of limiting numbers of direct errors: whether it makes her more efficient than peak Egonu is another story, there are several different variables (number of OOS balls, number of break points, and so forth).

Non-serving BPs per set since 2018/19 season:

There's also blocking factoring number of BPs, but here we don't have data to know which blocks were a BP blocks, so I can't come up with anything better than that.

Top10 in regular BPs per set:

Antropova may be not as efficient, but she's a serving freak, so that's why she's so great there. Also, Akimova had really interesting 2023/24 season if she can get back to her regular shape.

Ribechi might steal Giovannini's spot in the Italian NT as the serve/defence specialist. She'a got some serve.

Quote from mintonette

Ribechi might steal Giovannini's spot in the Italian NT as the serve/defence specialist. She'a got some serve.

she can’t pass lol

A super Saturday will be followed by a super Tuesday, the calendar is criminal.

The night opened with the imposing sweep by San Giovanni in Marignano. The visitors knew it was a matter of now or never and delivered a very good performance against Cuneo. Winning that second set was crucial, because it really drained all the energy the hosts had and shifted the momentum for good. Still, apart from the usual tremendous contribution from Zhuang Yushan, I think the unbelievable presence by Caruso at the net and a stable performance by Brancher for once were the main factors to such a gap. I know Cuneo has little to play for from now on, but this was the chance to seal the deal for another season in the top series and they failed badly. Signorile has seen her day and it's time to move on, but such a weak serving has been an incredible liability since the beginning of the season.

Novara came close to avenge the reverse sweep suffered back in November, but Scandicci survived the charge and solidified second place in the standings. Tolok pulled off yet another immense performance and won attacking-wise the head-to-head against Antropova, but HurriKate literally formed a wall with an immense Graziani and gave Scandicci a crucial edge in blocking. Plus, a very consistent tie-break by Bosetti, some valuable serves by Ribechi and the usual of out of worldly plays by Ognjenović cemented the gap. A little less flightiness by Cambi, having Bonifacio and more usage of Ishikawa could've tipped the scales in the visitors' favour, but Scandicci currently has more weapons compared to Novara and it showed.

Busto Arsizio revived its playoff ambitions with a convincing win on the road against an exhausted and possibly gratified Macerata. All in all a solid performance by the visitors, but that 7-0 run that almost costed them the second set wasn't great to watch. Still, both MB and OH pairing worked well, with Parra in full fig and perfectly fed by Seki. It was indeed one of the worst performances of the season from the hosts, but at this point of the season and with such a thin roster, it's difficult to keep up with that aggressive and pace-oriented style they showed up until now. Their defence was subpar and their break point phase wasn't particularly efficient, but a seven point lead from the red zone with five games to go should be enough to stay up.

The same can't be said for Monviso, who definitely tried to surprise Milano and kept the match alive for three sets. The thing is as soon as they were trailing 2-1, they disappeared from the match and this is the only thing a team that is fighting for survival can't do. I'm pleading once again for Bridi as a starter, because Battistoni has become so predictable it hurts, and serving can be better, but at this point their chances to make it aren't great and even winning against San Giovanni in Marignano won't be enough. Milano was once again EWD (Egonu Wheel Drive), but a good contribution came from both Danesi and Sartori. Great work in the back row from Fersino, while Pietrini subbed in for Lanier and while she wasn't bad, she wasn't that great either.

Raise your hand if your thought watching Chieri play in the first set was: "They're cooked!", because it surely was mine. Still, with a bit of luck and a lot of grit they turned it around to cruise into a comfortable win against one of the hottest team of the moment. After a couple of matches where she looked a bit fogged, Németh looked better and lead Chieri's attacking corps, with the OH holding on fine and Sarah van Aalen making a couple of important plays like the serve run at the end of the first set. Vallefoglia played three or four matches in one, starting from when they waisted four set points in the first, going trhough a troublesome second when they were still shook from Chieri's comeback, last but not least they changed one more time when De Bortoli got hurt, giving the team a rejuvenated will that almost prolonged the match. Still, with Omoruyi playing possibly the worst game of the season and Bartolucci messing around most of the time it was difficult to imagine a different result.

Maths still keeps them alive, but Perugia really looked like an already relegated team. Poor Gardini struggling to hold back tears says everything about the situation. They struggled in passing and defence, serving was so ineffective they barely managed to move Firenze's passing line and apart from the good entry from Fiesoli, there's little to build on from this display. A completely different vibe for the visitors, because Tanase did a great all-rounder job pairing with Knollema, allowing the Dutch to unleash on Perugia's disastrous defence. Valoppi was everywhere in the back row and surely helped in involving Acciarri when needed, but overall they really didn't need to do anything special to create big gaps in all sets.

Conegliano had the better of Bergamo in three sets, which is good considering the upcoming tour de force they will go through. Their block-defence correlation looked much better and De Gennaro showing a good shape surely had an impact on that. Plus, Haak is playing great and basically carrying the theam whenever is needed. Among the ones improving there's Zhu Thing, with an excellent display on offence but making plenty of good defensive plays too. Not a great day for Gabi and Chirichella, while Wołosz still isn't stealing my eye. Bergamo had chances but failed to make the most out of them, struggling a little bit with passing and forcing Eze to run around most of the time.

Quote from jaq

I'm so high on Avery Skinner she's been so great, clearly the second best OH this season after Gabi. Don't think it's particularly close either.

Do you think she is better than Zhu this season?

We are close to the play offs and Milano is still fighting to find their stability. I saw the match yesterday and they were in trouble in the first three sets, while Bosio used a lot the MB's, which is not something that happens often. In a usual day this could go to the tie break.

I am still a big supporter of Milano, but I am also dissapointed because the most realistic goal for them was the Italian cup- which they lost it- and therefore am not so optimistic.

Quote from KVB

Imo Cambi’s sets to pos.4 is one of the key factors. Also the OHs have to put extra effort on reception to cover more space for De Nardi while they had Fersino next to them last season.

Panetoni just got back and she's already looking so much better than De Nardi.

I really hope Novara manages to get Gelin

Quote from Pancake

I really hope Novara manages to get Gelin

But Novara needs an Italian libero. Unless they play with Bonifacio and Squarcini all the time. However both are injury prone and Squarcini is a big liability in blocking.

Quote from KVB

But Novara needs an Italian libero. Unless they play with Bonifacio and Squarcini all the time. However both are injury prone and Squarcini is a big liability in blocking.

Plus they get Julia K next season who should 100% be a starter