Neruda Volley
# Neruda Volley

Neruda Volley is an Italian women's volleyball club based in Bronzolo, it played in the Serie A1 until 2017 and is currently playing in the Serie B1.

## Previous names

Due to sponsorship, the club have competed under the following names:

* Neruda Volley Bolzano (1978–2013)
* Volksbank Südtirol Bolzano (2013–2015)
* Südtirol Bolzano (2015–present)

## History

Founded in 1978 as a cultural club dedicated to Pablo Neruda, volleyball become one of the club's activities in the early 1980s as youth teams began to compete in the regional leagues. The team did well achieving promotions but for financial reasons it declined competing at the higher national leagues. That changed in 2008 when Rudy Favretto became its president with a project to bring the club to the forefront of Italian volleyball. Personnel with experience at the Italian national youth teams were brought into the club and in 2012, the club acquired a licence to play in the Serie B1 from Pallavolo Vigevano. After playoffs and repechage the club gain promotion to the Serie A2 in 2013 and moved to the PalaResia.

The club reached the Serie A1 in 2015. Ahead of the 2017–18 season, the club announced it would not participate in Serie A1, due to lack of financial resources. The club was confirmed to play the Serie B1 in 2017–18.

## Team

This was the last team which played in the Serie A1, Season 2016–2017, as of February 2017.

| Number | Player | Position | Height (m) | Birth date |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Floriana Bertone | Middle blocker | 2.02 | (1992-11-19) 19 November 1992 (age 30) |
| 2 | Alessia Zancanaro | Libero | 1.68 | (1998-04-23) 23 April 1998 (age 25) |
| 3 | Eleonora Bruno | Libero | 1.80 | (1994-04-15) 15 April 1994 (age 29) |
| 6 | Tereza Rossi Matuszkova | Outside hitter | 1.92 | (1982-12-03) 3 December 1982 (age 40) |
| 7 | Natasha Spinello | Setter | 1.73 | (1998-12-15) 15 December 1998 (age 24) |
| 8 | Christina Bauer | Middle blocker | 1.96 | (1998-01-01) 1 January 1998 (age 25) |
| 9 | Valeria Papa | Outside hitter | 1.83 | (1989-09-09) 9 September 1989 (age 33) |
| 10 | Giulia Pincerato | Setter | 1.82 | (1987-03-16) 16 March 1987 (age 36) |
| 11 | Sanja Popović | Opposite | 1.86 | (1984-05-31) 31 May 1984 (age 39) |
| 14 | Michelle Bartsch | Outside hitter | 1.92 | (1990-02-12) 12 February 1990 (age 33) |
| 18 | Marina Zambelli | Middle blocker | 1.87 | (1990-01-01) 1 January 1990 (age 33) |
| | Matea Ikic | Outside hitter | 1.85 | (1989-05-25) 25 May 1989 (age 34) |
