Alan Nine
Italy maintained their perfect start to the Men’s EuroVolley with a straight-sets victory over Greece in Modena. Elsewhere, Monza and Costa Volpino recorded preseason wins, while Estonia international Karli Allik returned to Belluno after being ruled out of the European Championship through injury.
Men’s EuroVolley
Italy continued their perfect start to the 2026 Men’s EuroVolley with a 3-0 victory over Greece at the PalaPanini in Modena.
The opening two sets were closely contested, but Ferdinando De Giorgi’s team held their nerve to win both 25-23 before taking complete control of the third, 25-16. The match lasted one hour and 38 minutes and was watched by 4,200 spectators.
Daniele Lavia led Italy with 15 points, while Yuri Romanò contributed 14 and Giovanni Sanguinetti added seven. Alexandros Raptis was Greece’s leading scorer with 12 points.
Italy recorded a 59% attacking efficiency, compared with Greece’s 42%, and also held a 5-2 advantage in blocks. However, their 20 service errors gave De Giorgi something to address ahead of the next match. Greece stayed level until the closing stages of the opening set before Romanò converted the decisive counter-attack.
Luca Porro replaced Mattia Bottolo late in the first set and then started the second, making an immediate contribution in both defence and attack. Porro scored the point that gave Italy their first set point before Sanguinetti completed another 25-23 win. Italy then raised their attacking efficiency to 65% in the third set and quickly pulled clear.
After the match, De Giorgi praised his players for handling two demanding sets in which the teams remained closely matched until the final points. He highlighted Porro’s impact and Sanguinetti’s continued development, while identifying Italy’s serving after time-outs and their response in broken-play situations as areas that still require improvement. Italy will next face Slovakia.
SuperLega
Vero Volley Monza opened their preseason schedule with a 3-1 victory over Campi Reali Cantù at the Opiquad Arena. Massimo Eccheli’s team won the first two sets 25-16 and 25-23. Cantù responded by taking the third 25-23, but Monza regained control to win the fourth 25-16. Nicolò Mapelli finished as the match’s leading scorer with 16 points. Jacopo Massari contributed 13, while Hryhorii Khotsevitch added 12. Eccheli rotated his available players and gave several members of the club’s youth programme valuable court time.
Monza remain without Bulgarian internationals Zhasmin Velichkov and Iliya Petkov, as well as United States setter Andrew Rowan. Their next preseason match will be against Pallavolo Padova in Bassano del Grappa on September 19.
Women’s Serie A2
C.B.L. Costa Volpino defeated Itas Trentino 3-1 in Trentino’s fifth preseason match. The hosts won the first three sets 25-20, 25-19 and 27-25 before Trentino took the fourth 25-23. The result repeated Costa Volpino’s four-set victory in the teams’ first meeting two weeks earlier.
Krasteva led Costa Volpino with 18 points, while Viscioni added 15. For Trentino, Polona Frelih scored 15 points and finished with a 38% attacking efficiency. Trentino recorded 11 blocks to Costa Volpino’s ten, including four from substitute Greta Iob, but the hosts held a 43%-36% advantage in attack.
Serie A3
Karli Allik will miss EuroVolley with Estonia because of an abdominal injury. The Belluno Volley outside hitter has already joined Vincenzo Mastrangelo’s squad in Belluno and begun a gradual rehabilitation programme.
Estonia opened their Pool C campaign at the Nokia Arena in Tampere with a 3-1 defeat by Serbia. They will also face Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland during the pool stage.
Belluno’s priority is to help Allik regain full fitness ahead of his first season with the club without taking any unnecessary risks with his recovery.
