Imoco & Stuttgart Defended Their Titles With Huge Victories in Playoff Finals

This weekend, the champions became clear in Italy and Germany: While Imoco took the crown against Scandicci as expected, the Stuttgart side became the German champions for the third time in a row, this time with a four-set victory over Schwerin in the decisive fifth game.

The champions did not change in Italy: The gold medalist of the previous five editions, this year’s undefeated main phase leaders and #CLVolleyW SuperFinalist A. Carraro Imoco Volley Conegliano faced Savino Del Bene Scandicci in the fourth round of the Italian Serie A1 Women Playoff finals.

In front of their fans, the Scandicci side started to match quite powerfully, and they took the first set. However, after that point, there was a clear Imoco dominance: Italian expert Daniele Santarelli’s team started to play their usual top-level game from the beginning of the second set, and with a huge victory by a score of 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-21), they once again became the best team in Italy.

The Swedish superstar of the winning side, Isabelle Haak, was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. She was also the top scorer of the clash: Including two blocks, the talented opposite produced 27 points, followed by American outside hitters Kathryn Plummer (17 points) and Kelsey Robinson-Cook (10 points). Italian opposite Ekaterina Antropova’s 19 points were not enough for victory in Scandicci.

The defending champion maintained their title in Germany as well: The existing crown-holder, Allianz MTV Stuttgart, took the court against SSC Palmberg Schwerin, and the team completed the main season in the top position. After falling behind to 2-1 in the series, the Stuttgart side succeeded in extending the series to fifth and determining the clash by a straight-set victory.

This time, everything started quite well for Schwerin side, and they won the first set without difficulties. With the kick-off of the second one, Stuttgart just began to show a superior performance and did not let Schwerin catch them, which made them victorious in the following three sets (3-1: 17-25, 25-20, 25-13, 25-13), and reached the gold medal, for the third consecutive time.

The Dutch setter Britt Bongaerts was honored with the MVP title, while her compatriot Jolien Knollema tallied 20 points in total on the winning side. Nova Marring and Elles Dambrink scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, in Schwerin.

Since we have learned all the champions of the most prestigious domestic tournament in the continent, now all eyes will be on the national league season. The players and technical staff will take a short rest and aim to start preparing for the #CLVolleyW SuperFinals and national leagues immediately. We will see what kind of a summer ahead for the gold medalist players of the national leagues.