Cuneo Granda S.Bernardo staged a rather big upset in Round 13 of the 2022–23 Italian Women’s Volleyball Championship.
In the last round of the 2022-23 Serie A this year, Cuneo Granda S.Bernardo knocked down Igor Gorgonzola Novara in the Piedmontese derby (derby of the Piedmont region) to strengthen the impression that Stefano Lavarini’s team needs at least two reinforcements on the roster to truly fight for the title. Given that Cuneo were 11th in the standings prior to the match and Novara were fourth, this result is highly surprising.
In a two-and-a-half-hour battle, Novara paid the price for too many mistakes in the decisive moments of the first and third sets and then squandered a good start to the fifth set (from 5-2 to 7-8) after which their five-game winning streak came to an end. Russian Sofiya Kuznetsova top-scored for Cuneo with 31 points. Hungarian Gréta Szakmáry served 4 aces. Turk Ebrar Karakurt tallied 30 points on the losing side, including 4 blocks. Anna Danesi had as many as 7 blocks.
After Poulter’s injury (the season is over for her) and Adams’ slow reintroduction to the play after injury, it seems logical that Novara must get some fresh faces in the squad. Herbots refused them, and Bartsch-Hackley was mentioned as their reinforcement a month ago…
2022-23 Serie A, regular season, Round 13:
