The University of Bologna finished the European University Women’s Basketball Championship in ninth place. This marks a step backwards compared to their last two successful campaigns. The Alma Mater Studiorum paid the price for a poor start to the tournament – the defeat against Freiburg. After that, they recorded four consecutive victories, yet could only manage ninth place at best. The match against Eötvös Loránd University ended 85–67 (33–23; 50–38; 68–47 in the quarters), demonstrating the validity of the words spoken by coach Jordan Losi the day after their inconsequential victory in the qualifying round. “We must still honour the European Championships, even though we know our dreams were different.” The team made no further mistakes, approaching every match with vigour and enthusiasm. Now, the hope is that Losi’s overall philosophy will continue to prove successful. Jordan has already started working towards 2027 because CUS Bologna has no intention of playing the role of sacrificial lamb.
Jordan sums it up. “Well done to the girls for seeing their work through with great dignity and pride. We dominated the match and did exactly what we set out to do. We achieved the best we possibly could. At one point, the best we could hope for was ninth place, and we achieved that with dignity. Keeping Bologna at bay. It would have been easy to give up, but the girls never did, because they knew they were proudly representing the University of Bologna – their friends here and those back home. The pride of being part of CUS Bologna. And now we’re looking ahead to next year.” And what about Beatrice Baldi? “We’re ending the European Championships with a fine victory against a good team – a physical side with some strong individual players. We got off to a good start in attack, scoring plenty in the first quarter, but we made the difference at the start of the second half, when we stepped up the intensity and physicality of our defence and carved out the decisive lead. There’s still some regret at finishing in ninth place despite suffering just one defeat in the whole tournament, against the team that went on to reach the final. Unfortunately, in competitions like this, it’s also important to know how to lose well on days when things don’t go as we’d like. We failed to do that in the match against Freiburg, and this condemned us to the consolation round. This will serve as a lesson not to take any match for granted and to be focused from the very first minute next year, ready to fight to win a medal again.”
The team sheet: Sofia Tartarini, Alice Malintoppi 2, Elena Cavalli, Amina Zarfaoui 2, Silvia Bernabè, Beatrice Del Pero 24, Alessandra Orsili 14, Martina Rosignoli 11, Agnese Gianangeli 9, Beatrice Baldi 14, Elena Melloni 6, Serena Soglia.
Jordan Losi, head coach; Elisabetta Tassinari, assistant coach; Giacomo Bavieri, team manager; Carlo Sartorio, physiotherapist; Matteo Roiaz, referee; Matteo Galli, official.
Press Office - Cus Bologna ASD
