Italy beat Slovenia to secure their first ever VNL podium

Rome: For the first time in men’s Volleyball Nations League history, the Italian team will be on the podium. In Saturday’s first VNL semifinal in Ningbo, China, Italy achieved a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-21, 25-18) victory over Slovenia and secured at least a silver medal finish this VNL season, coming to an end on Sunday. In the final duel for the gold, they will face the winner of the second semifinal, between Brazil and Poland, starting later on Saturday evening.

Italy’s 23-year-old star outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto led the team to the victory over Slovenia with a solid all-round performance on the court in Ningbo. He emerged as the best scorer of the match with a total of 26 points. He fired three of Italy’s nine aces that gave the team an important edge from the serving line, against Slovenia’s two direct serving points. Another three aces came from setter and captain Simone Giannelli. Michieletto also authored four of the squad’s 10 kill blocks in the match and spiked 19 points at a 61% success rate.

“We knew it would not be an easy game. We saw their quarterfinal. They also played very well today. But this was a VNL semifinal,” Alessandro Michieletto told VBTV after the match. “They played so well and we had some difficulties, but I think, with our players, who came from the bench, we found the solutions.”

Michieletto’s cross-court teammate Daniele Lavia hammered the game winning point in the fourth set to shape up a total match tally of 12 points, all in swings. Opposite Kamil Rychlicki also reached the double digits with 11 points to his name, including one ace and one kill block.

Slovenia made much fewer mistakes than Italy in this game (16-23 in unforced errors), but that was not enough to compensate for the opponents’ dominance in spiking and serving. Their 23-year-old star outside hitter Rok Mozic delivered a team-high 14 points, including two aces. Slovenia’s other outside Ziga Stern finished with 11 points, while middle blocker and captain Jan Kozamernik put up four kill blocks and also reached the double digits with a total of 10 points.

“It was a tough match. We tried our best. We had our chances in first set and in the third set, which we lost, but team Italy was just better on this day. I hope we can do something better in our game tomorrow,” Ziga Stern commented. “We need to forget this game, rest and give our best, and I hope we can find our strength for tomorrow.”

The second semifinal on Saturday’s program in Ningbo, between Brazil and Poland, is set to serve off at 19:00 local time (11:00 UTC). The gold medal showdown on Sunday is set to get underway at the same time, while four hours earlier, at 15:00 (07:00), the first whistle of the bronze medal game will go off.