After the triumph of the Azzurre in the VNL, the Serie A1 Tigotà 2025/26 calendar was released today by the Women’s Volleyball League, which will see the tricolor Panthers of Prosecco DOC A. Carraro Imoco Volley defend the championship won for the eighth time (seventh consecutive). The Fineco Super Cup that will award the first trophy of the season will be played on October 18 against Milan, with a venue to be defined.
This year the opening novelty is the “Monday Night”: the A1 Championship will begin on Monday 6 October, the Italian champions will begin their journey in Busto Arsizio against the UYBA of the former Seki and Eckl.
The first match at the Palaverde of Prosecco DOC A.Carraro is scheduled for Sunday 12 October against Cuneo Granda, then the away match at the home of the newly promoted San Giovanni in Marignano (15/10). The first big match comes on October 26 with the fifth of the championship away at the PalaIgor in Novara, red circle on November 5, in midweek at the Palaverde the now classic challenge against Numia Milano, while on Sunday 16 November the spotlight is on Scandicci’s visit to the Palaverde in the re-edition of the last Champions League final.
The last first leg will be in Perugia on 30/11, while the first return leg at home against Busto Arsizio will curiously be moved to 19/11 (before the end of the first round) for calendar needs given the concomitance with the Club World Cup which for the entire central part of the month of December will see the Panthers engaged in the East. On the way back, the first match is scheduled for 20/12 against Cuneo away, then the matches of the Christmas period: on Tuesday 23 December there is Florence within the friendly walls, on Santo Stefano this year they play “on the road” and there will be the away challenge with Milan; another big match for the first match of the new year on January 4 at the Palaverde against Novara, but on December 30 the 2025 of the Panthers will end at the Palaverde with the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup in a one-off match.
The Regular Season will end on February 21 with the away match against Wash4Green Pinerolo.
The play-offs for the top 8 in the standings are scheduled for March 1 with the quarter-finals in the best of three games, the semi-finals and final will be played in the best of 5 games for closing with a possible game 5 of the final on April 25 or 26.
The months of November and December will be the busiest for the Panthers, who will see their calendar enriched with the commitments of the CEV Champions League and the Club World Cup, competitions of which Prosecco DOC A.Carraro holds the title. In the top European tournament, the yellow-blues were included in group D with LKS Lodz, Dresdner SC and Ankara Zeren Spor Kulübü.
All dates are subject to change for television needs.
HERE IS THE COMPLETE CALENDAR LINK:
https://www.
The players will meet at the base for the medical tests of the new season on August 18, while on August 19 the assistant coach Tommaso Barbato will direct the first session at the Palaverde with part of the group available. The national teams involved in the World Cup in Thailand and the Chinese Zhu Ting will return later in September.
Furthermore, from 1 September, the free sale phase will open relating to the ALL-INCLUSIVE Season Ticket Campaign to attend all the home matches of the Panthers. All info on: https://imocovolley.it/
DICHIARAZIONI COACH DANIELE SANTARELLI
“The start of the championship away is atypical, we will go to Busto against a team that had a good championship last season: we will find our “friends” Seki and Eckl, very good players with whom we have just concluded a beautiful season. All in all, in the first races we will have a soft start with teams that on paper are affordable, but who will want to show a lot and start strong to take advantage of the surprise effect, while certainly teams like ours will be at their best further ahead; it will certainly not be easy as always with all the veterans from the summer with the national teams, but we will have to find a way to break in very quickly towards the Super Cup because the first trophy will be played for after only three rounds of the championship. In November then the busiest month awaits us, we will have many rounds between the league and the Champions League, few instead in December, where the focus will be all on the Club World Cup, an event we care a lot about. It’s a shame not to play on December 26 at home where we would have had our classic sold out, we will make up for it with Novara at the first of the new year, I am convinced there will be an important setting. But I would like the sold out to become a habit at the Palaverde even when there are no big names in front of us, this team is a spectacle and I am convinced that this year too we will have a lot of full houses even if the opponents are not Milan, Novara and Scandicci.
January and February will be quieter months than the first, we will have the Coppa Italia in our sights, then when we understand the joints with the Champions League we will measure the degree of difficulty of the calendar at that point of the season, which will be the springboard towards the Italian and European playoffs”.