Second match and second victory for women’s Italvolley at the European Championships. Coach Julio Velasco’s Italian team defeated Montenegro 3-0 (set: 25-13; 25-20; 25-19) in the match at the ‘Scandinavium’ in Goeteborg, Sweden. After beating Croatia on their debut, today captain Anna Danesi and her teammates found no particular difficulty in getting the better of the Montenegrins who managed to become dangerous in the first part of the second set and in the final part of the third. Mister Velasco rested spiker Myriam Sylla and center Sarah Fahr, then paired Denise Meli with Danesi and continued to field Ekaterina Antropova in the role of spiker.
The latter confirmed itself as Italy’s top scorer with 13 points. Second best scorer is Paola Egonu with 11, followed by Stella Nervini with 10, Danesi and Meli with 7. Tomorrow at 6pm, Italy will face Sweden. Italy’s women’s volleyball team won three gold medals at the European Championships, in 2007, 2009 and 2021, but in 2023 they finished in fourth place. The Italians aim to equal a historical record, that of the Soviet Union which at the same time, between the late ’60s and the early ’90s, was Olympic champion, world champion and European champion. Last May, in the last match of the first week of the Volleyball Nations League against Brazil, Velasco’s Italian team lost their unbeaten run of 735 (39 consecutive victories).