Scandicci Took The 1-0 Lead in Italian Finals Against Imoco, Strong Victory From Eczacibasi in Türkiye

The playoff finals brought a lot of joy this week in the top two national leagues in the continent, Italy and Türkiye. While the Scandicci side took an exceptional victory against Imoco with a massive comeback at the determining tie-break set, Eczacibasi also performed at a pretty high level against Fenerbahce to extend the series to the fifth game.

The first battle in the final round of the Italian Serie A1 Women took place this week, and the reigning champions Imoco Volley Conegliano faced Savino Del Bene Scandicci. Both teams put a great effort on the court, and the game was tied to 2-2 after the first four sets. In the challenging tie-break set, Imoco actually had a significant advantage, and they found the score of 13-9. After that point, the Scandicci side pushed their limits and won the set and match (3-2: 25-22, 16-25, 25-22, 24-26, 17-15).

Italian opposite Ekaterina Antropova clearly stood out with her performance on the winning side: Including five aces and three blocks, Antropova scored 31 points and was honored with the MVP title. Outside hitters, Chinese Zhu Ting and Belgian Britt Herbots also performed very well, with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Swedish superstar Isabelle Haak’s 34 points were not enough for Imoco this time.

The second leg of the playoff finals will be played tomorrow in Scandicci’s home. Imoco will surely try their best to tie the series, and the goal for Scandicci is to increase the gap to two battles and to get one more step to the top of the podium.

Two powerhouses of Türkiye, Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul, and Fenerbahce Istanbul, took the court against each other for the fourth round of the Turkish finals. Fenerbahce had a 2-1 lead in the series, and winning this fight will make them the champions of this long season. Being aware of this, the Eczacibasi side showed superior performance against their opponent and became victorious in straight sets (3-0: 25-21, 25-21, 25-21).

The most productive player on the court was no one but Tijana Boskovic: Including one block and one ace, the Serbian opposite tallied a total of 25 points. Turkish middle blocker Sinead Jack-Kısal reached the double digits on the winning side with 11. As a team, Fenerbahce did not get their usual performance this time, and the most productive player on the losing side was Russian outside hitter Arina Fedorovtseva with 9 points. This year’s Turkish Sultanlar League champions will be determined in the fifth and final game on Sunday.

This week, the regular season champions suffered critical defeats against their biggest rivals in the playoff finals. We will see what they do on the weekend: Can Imoco tie the series with Scandicci, and can Fenerbahce maintain their domestic league title? Do not forget to follow.