The post-race. Hill and Wolosz preach calm in view of the second leg “We have confidence in ourselves, but the Igor is a team that doesn’t give up”
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In Conegliano’s streak of 56 victories there is also the sequence of 16 victories in the Champions League reached last night; Novara, the last to beat the panthers in Europe, thus enters the list of the panthers’ “victims” together with Nantes, Fenerbahçe, Scandicci, Budapest, Alba Blaj, Kamnik and Stuttgart. Even more than in the final of the Italian Cup, the Gialloblù are concentrated on the match plan, conceding even less to their opponents and taking away the few certainties they counted on after the Rimini match. The path that was interrupted just a year ago on the threshold of the semifinal was immediately in the thoughts of Wolosz and his teammates (“we stay to win” and “we are not satisfied yet”): everyone can see that they care about this. trophy and that they learned much more from the Coppa Italia match than Novara did. «We are satisfied with how we managed the race – says Kimberly Hill – and because we have been aggressive from the beginning. Wolosz did a great job, we split the attacks well. We played with confidence in ourselves ». As an experienced player, one of the few to have already won the trophy, the American spiker knows that the return match next Tuesday at Palaverde will require the same attention. “Novara remains a strong team, it never gives up and we will have to be even more prepared next time, to continue playing well, as I expect them to do too.” Captain Joanna Wolosz says she is “very happy and proud of the team, because it is not easy to play such tough games in a few days (and with two away games, ed). We fixed some things that didn’t work in the Italian Cup; but we haven’t done anything yet. Now a little rest and then let’s think about the return ». Two sets will be enough to qualify for the final in Verona, but Novara must win four to try to defend the trophy won in Berlin two years ago against Conegliano. After two defeats in a few days, one clearer than the other, the Piedmontese captain Cristina Chirichella is already looking forward to what her team will have to do to try to defeat Conegliano. «We will have to improve in the wall-defense phase and change our approach to the match. We started well in all sets, but we didn’t play 100%. We know that playing against them is difficult, we will have to do something special: now we have almost a week to better prepare for the second leg ». –