Alan Nine
Volleyball.it closed July 24 with a compact but varied set of stories spread across the national team program, domestic league planning, beach volleyball and youth preparation. The men’s senior side started its Tokyo work with a straight-sets win over Japan B, while the league system in Italy published the full competitive framework for Serie A3 Credem Banca 2026-27. On the international beach side, the draw for EuroBeachVolley 2026 clarified the first opponents for three Italian pairs, and the women’s Italy Under 17 team wrapped up its final test series against Poland ahead of the world championship in Santiago del Cile.
International
Italy began its Asian tour with a 3-0 friendly win over Japan B in Tokyo, taking the match by set scores of 25-23, 25-20, 30-28 before an additional practice set was also played and closed by an ace from Alessandro Bovolenta. The test was part of the build-up to the men’s VNL Finals, and Ferdinando De Giorgi opened with Sbertoli in the setter role, Bovolenta opposite, Mati and Galassi in the middle, Sani and Luca Porro as outside hitters, and Laurenzano at libero.
Bovolenta was the top scorer for Italy with 17 points and a reported 65% attacking rate, while Luca Porro added 11 points, including 2 blocks and 2 aces. Volleyball.it also highlighted the broader team numbers: 7 kill blocks, 59% in attack, 44% positive reception, 6 aces and 17 service errors. Japan B answered with 6 blocks, 53% in attack and 23 service errors, a figure that heavily shaped the match. For Italy, it was a useful controlled start rather than a headline result, but the site treated it as a solid opening step before the decisive VNL phase.
Italian Leagues
Lega Pallavolo Serie A officially detailed the structure of Serie A3 Credem Banca 2026-27, a competition that will start on October 18, 2026 and end its regular season on March 14, 2027. The championship will feature 23 teams, with 12 in the Girone Bianco and 11 in the Girone Blu. Two promotion places to Serie A2 remain available, but Volleyball.it emphasized that the main change concerns the playoff architecture.
The two group winners will first meet in a best-of-five Promotion Playoff, with the winner going straight up and the loser entering the playoff bracket later in the semifinals. From there, teams placed from second to seventh in each group enter the main postseason. The round of 16 will stay inside each group and be played over two legs with a possible golden set, but from the quarterfinals onward the bracket will be re-seeded across both groups using the points-per-match criterion rather than a simple league position. On the relegation side, three teams will go down: the 12th-placed team in Girone Bianco directly, plus two more through play-outs involving the 10th and 11th teams in each group when the gap between them is five points or fewer.
Beach Volley
The pool draw for EuroBeachVolley 2026 set the first stage of a tournament that will run from August 12 to 16 in Stare Jablonki, Poland. Volleyball.it underlined both the prestige of the venue, which hosted the 2013 FIVB World Championship, and the added Olympic value of the event: the winning men’s and women’s pairs will secure an Olympic place for their respective National Olympic Committee for Los Angeles 2028.
For Italy, the women’s side will be represented by Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth in Pool C, where they were drawn with Germany’s Bock-Kunst and Paul-Lippmann plus Lithuania’s Ievute Vasiliauskaite-Kliokmanaite. Claudia Scampoli and Margherita Bianchin were placed in Pool H alongside Poland’s Lunio-Kruczek, Ukraine’s Serdiuk-Romaniuk and Lazarenko-Kurnikova. On the men’s side, Samuele Cottafava and Davide Dal Corso will start in Pool G against Poland’s Łosiak-Bryl, England’s Bello-Bello and Switzerland’s Dillier-Flückiger. Volleyball.it described it as an immediately demanding group and also noted the wider international spotlight on reigning European champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum.
Youth National Teams
Italy Under 17 women completed a three-match test series against Poland in Castelnovo ne’ Monti as the team of coach Monica Cresta moved into the final stretch before the World Championship in Santiago del Cile, scheduled from August 6 to 16. The camp ran from July 15 to 24, and the results were three defeats, but Volleyball.it’s report focused on the competitive value of the series rather than the raw record.
Italy lost the first match 1-3 after taking the opening set, then came closest in the second test, where the Azzurrine led 2-0 before Poland recovered to win 3-2. The third and final match also ended 1-3, but Italy took the third set 28-26 and stayed alive until 23-25 in the fourth. The clearest individual marker came in the middle match, where Uwadie scored 33 points, while the statistical notes across the series showed useful production in serving and blocking despite the losses. Volleyball.it’s overall line was that the numerical balance remained negative, but the tests still offered concrete signs ahead of the world event.
