Italy claim u22 women’s volleyball European title

Rome: Italy have celebrated as the first-ever U22 women’s volleyball European champions. Two years after they triumphed as the inaugural U21 continental titleholders, and after the age limit for the competition was adjusted, the Italians delighted the home crowd with another gold at the 2024 CEV U22 Women’s Volleyball European Championship in Copertino and Lecce. In fact, the entire podium was lined up in the exact same way as it was at the 2022 U21 event, also in Italy, with Serbia and Poland earning the silver and the bronze, respectively.

The eight participating teams were split into two round-robin pools of four for the first stage of the competition. In Pool I, Italy produced a 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-15) win over Latvia, a 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-14) win over Ukraine and a tight 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 27-25) win over Türkiye to top the pool standings and advance to the semifinals. In the match for a spot in the final, the team from Italy suffered their only set loss in the tournament, but went on to achieve a 3-1 (25-22, 25-18, 16-25, 25-22) win over Poland. A straight-set duel decided Sunday’s gold medal showdown at the San Giuseppe da Copertino sports venue, with the inspired home team mastering a 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-23) victory over Serbia.

Serbia also topped their Pool II standings without dropping a single set along the way, in their games against Poland, Portugal and Czechia, but in the semifinals, they had to persevere through a five-set thriller against Türkiye before celebrating a 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 20-25, 17-25, 15-10) victory.

Türkiye then swept the bronze medal match against Poland by an emphatic 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-17).

Italy’s 21-year-old outside hitter Beatrice Gardini claimed the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and a place on the tournament’s Dream Team along with setter Chidera Blessing Eze (Italy) (pictured in the main photo; credits: cev.eu), opposite Aleksia Karutasu (Türkiye), outside hitter Branka Tica (Serbia), middle blockers Katja Eckl (Italy) and Iva Sucurovic (Serbia), and libero Selin Adali (Türkiye).