Italvolley Eliminated After Two Years: No Final for Velasco’s Girls; Brazil Celebrates

The Italian women’s volleyball team’s run comes to an end. After their triumphs at the Olympics and the World Championships, Julio Velasco’s team must bow out of the Nations League, where they had held the title since 2024: the Azzurre were defeated by Brazil in the semifinals in five sets, with set scores of 21-25; 25-21; 26-24; 21-25; 15-12—and must now abandon their dream of winning the tournament for the third consecutive year.

The match against Zé Roberto’s South American team was fiercely contested, and Italy was partly hampered by the off-form play of outside hitters Paola Egonu (16 points) and Ekaterina Antropova (8 points), who were well contained by the Brazilian defense. The top scorer of the match was Brazil’s Ana Cristina, who finished with 23 points.

Italy will now face the loser of the semifinal between Turkey and China in the third-place match. “They played better,” admitted Velasco. “I think they won because they played better, especially on defense and in transition. We defended, but our transition offense wasn’t organized well: you saw that Brazil was very good, and that’s what made the difference.”

“We have to accept this loss and learn how to play after a defeat, especially since we haven’t lost a single game in the last two years—so it’s something a team needs to know how to handle after losing a game. I think this will help us grow and teach us something.”