It happened again. Repeating what took place in 2023-2024, Igor Gorgonzola Novara destroyed Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano’s hopes of remaining undefeated throughout an entire edition of the Lega Volley Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà and leveled their best-of-five semifinal series with a massive victory on Saturday.

The other series seems to be going Numia Vero Volley Milano’s way after the team defeated Savino Del Bene Scandicci for a second-straight time on Sunday, despite Ekaterina Antropova’s record-setting 38 points, and will have two opportunities to secure the third victory they need to advance to the Scudetto Finals in front of their home fans.

• Watch the Lega Volley Femminile Serie A1 Tigotà playoffs live on VBTV

Meeting in the Italian semifinals for a third-straight season, Novara and Conegliano are following the script of last year, when after the Panthers won the first match, their opponents secured a big win that ended an incredibly long winning streak by their rivals.

However, if last year Novara needed five sets to take the reigning world champions down, on Saturday they did it in three to triumph 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-23) and make their opponents deal with a loss after 50 matches – it was also the first time since May 2023 that Conegliano dropped a match in the Italian League without winning sets.

Russian opposite Tatiana Tolok was the x-factor in Novara’s massive win as she stood out with a 26-point (21 kills, three aces, two blocks) performance and received the MVP award. Outside hitters Lina Alsmeier and Mayu Ishikawa contributed 12 points each.

“We knew we needed an almost-perfect match today and that’s what we delivered,” said Novara’s setter Francesca Bosio. “We were determined to change things after not playing well in the first match and I’m proud of the team because we did something big today. This is obviously far from over, but we earned the right to return home for the fourth match and will try to continue in the best possible way.”

From Conegliano’s stars, Swedish opposite Isabelle Haak was the only one to deliver a solid game – she led the team with 20 points (14 kills, five blocks, one ace). Outside hitters Zhu Ting and Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães registered ten and six points, respectively.

“We knew it was going to be hard to beat Novara in their stadium and we had experienced that in the regular season,” middle blocker Sarah Fahr reacted. “We fought to stop them, but they put a lot of pressure on us with their serves and deserved to win. The playoffs are like this, everyone plays at their best and we can’t take anything for granted. We’ll need to play better in the next match.”

Conegliano and Novara will meet for the third of potentially five times on Sunday, at 15:20 local time (14:20 GMT), in Villorba.

Lega Volley Femmnilie – Match Schedule & Results

Milano avoid reverse sweep to stay in control

Held in Firenze, the second match of the series between Milano and Scadicci was a rollercoaster, which saw the visiting team almost waste a two-set lead before coming back in the tie-breaker to win 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 15-13) and get ahead 2-0 in the series.

Olympic champion setter Alessia Orro needed all of her hitters to win the match and had opposite Paola Egonu stand out with 23 points (22 kills, one block), six more than Dutch outside hitter Nika Daalderop and Serbian middle blocker Hena Kurtagić, who received the MVP award.

“Tonight we showed we have enough energy to fight until the end,” outside hitter Myriam Sylla said. “Scandicci were at home and I thought we had some ups and downs too, but we always tried to keep pace with them. Winning a match like this shows the character of our team and this can take us very far.”

As usual, Scandicci heavily relied on Olympic champion Antropova, who had the most productive performance ever registered in a playoff match of the Italian League, leaving the court with 38 points (29 kills, eight aces, one block).

“It was an incredible match,” head coach Marco Gaspari analyzed. “I don’t think a team was ever more than a few points ahead of the other. Milano have some physical qualities that we struggle with, but the girls did all they could to follow our instructions and came up with something more. Coming back after losing two sets is not easy, but I thought we didn’t have much energy left in the tie-breaker. Now we need to keep playing each match as if it was the last one.”

The third and potentially final match of the series will be held on Sunday, at 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT), in Milano.

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