The Panthers won the Lega Femminile for a seventh-straight season with a sweep against Milano
published_tag 09:26, 22 Apr 2025
Captain Joanna Wołosz lifts the Lega Femminile trophy (Photo: Lega Femminile)
Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano continue to reign supreme in the Lega Volley Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà as the Panthers secured on Tuesday their seventh-straight and eighth-overall Italian League title.
The reigning world champions celebrated their victory with over 5,000 fans who packed the stands at the Palaverde, in Villorba, and pushed them to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-21) victory over Numia Vero Volley Milano in the third and last match of the best-of-five series of the Scudetto Finals.
With the victory, Conegliano now have eight titles (2015-2016, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025) and tied Bergamo as the second most successful team in Italian League history, only trailing Teodora Pallavolo Ravenna, who lifted the trophy 11 consecutive times between 1980 and 1991.
Their 2024-2025 victory will, however, go down in history as the Panthers have managed to secure the title after producing the best-ever campaign in the Lega Femminile regular season, collecting 77 of the potential 78 points with an undefeated campaign of 26 victories. Their entire campaign had 34 victories in 35 matches, with the only setback happening in the second match of the semifinals, against Igor Gorgonzola Novara.
“This is incredible,” said Conegliano’s star setter Joanna Wołosz, who won her seventh title with the team. “I’m very proud of the entire team because we played extremely well in all three matches of this series. Maybe losing that match to Novara was a blessing in disguise. We reacted extremely well to that setback and from there on, we’ve been playing with a lot of determination, in the Conegliano way.”
The Italian League victory just adds to what has been a perfect season for the Panthers, who also won gold at the 2024 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship, the Coppa Italia and the Italian Supercup, completing the Italian women’s volleyball ‘Triple Crown’ for a fifth-straight year. They still have another trophy to chase in the CEV Champions League, which will have its Final Four held in Istanbul, Türkiye, from May 3-4 – they will face Milano in the semifinals.
Star libero Monica De Gennaro is the only player to have appeared in each of Conegliano’s successful campaigns and she got to celebrate her eighth national title on the same day that she completed 500 matches with the team – her husband, head coach Daniele Santarelli, was also involved in all eight victories, contributing to the first title, in 2015-2016, as an assistant coach.
“She’s an example,” Wołosz added. “She’s very important to this club, and I think that her 500th match could have happened on a better occasion. She deserves everything – the love of the fans, the victory and the Scudetto…Monica is incredible.”
On Tuesday, Swedish star opposite Isabelle Haak was Conegliano’s most productive player, leaving the court with 22 points (20 kills, one block, one ace). One of their signings for the 2024-2025 season, Brazilian national team captain Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães also had an excellent performance, with 16 points (13 kills, two blocks, one ace), and was awarded as the Finals MVP.
“I can’t describe my feelings right now,” Gabi said. “I just want to thank the fans for their support. It’s incredible to be a part of this team. Now we go for the Champions League.”
Milano’s star opposite Paola Egonu had her quietest performance in the series, scoring 18 points (16 kills, one block, one ace). French outside hitter Hélena Cazaute, who was moved into the team’s starting lineup for the third match, added ten, all in kills.
“They were the better team in this series and I’d like to congratulate them for it,” Dutch outside hitter Nika Daalderop, who scored eight points on Tuesday, said. “They had an amazing season and played very well today, too. It was a very tough series for us, but I’m disappointed because we could have shown more in each of the three matches. Now we’ll try to get something in the Champions League.”
Lega Volley Femmnilie – Results
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