Julio Velasco has confirmed the 14 players who will open Italy's European Championship campaign with a week-long training camp in Cavalese, in the Val di Fiemme, from 1 to 7 August. The women's national team returns to work in Trentino off the back of the bronze medal claimed at the Volleyball Nations League Finals in Macao, where the same group edged China 3-1 in the third-place match to round off a long and demanding summer, and the head coach has kept faith with that squad as the continental title becomes the next target.
Setters: Carlotta Cambi, Alessia Orro. Outside hitters: Stella Nervini, Myriam Sylla, Loveth Omoruyi, Gaia Giovannini. Middles: Denise Meli, Anna Danesi (captain), Linda Nwakalor, Sarah Fahr. Opposites: Paola Egonu, Ekaterina Antropova. Liberos: Ilaria Spirito, Eleonora Fersino. There are no new faces: Velasco has stuck with the exact group that travelled to Macao, pairing Egonu and Antropova at opposite and leaning on captain Danesi to anchor a middle-blocker unit completed by Meli, Nwakalor and Fahr.
The backroom staff is led once again by head coach Velasco, supported by assistant coaches Juan Manuel Cichello, Gabriele Antola and Valerio Lionetti, athletic trainer Pietro Muneratti, scoutman Massimiliano Taglioli, team doctor Francesca Conte, physiotherapists Francesco Bettalico and Antonella Boschi and team manager Marcello Capucchio.