The Italian Women's 2 Volleyball League (Italian: Serie A2 italiana di pallavolo femminile), is the second highest professional women's volleyball league in Italy. The league run under the Italian Volleyball Federation rules and promotion to the Serie A1 is awarded.
History
Following the expansion of the number of teams in Serie A in the 1970s, the league was split into two divisions in 1977; Serie A1 and Serie A2.[1] The teams in Serie A2 were split into two pools where the winners of the two pools were promoted to Serie A1. In the early 1990s the number of teams in Serie A2 was reduced to 16 teams and the two pools were replaced by a single pool. The split pools made a temporary comeback in the 1998–99 and 1999–00 seasons.[2]
In the 2018–19 regular season of Serie A2 the number of teams increased to 18 and the teams are once again split into two pools. At the end of the regular season, the top five teams in each pool are qualified for the promotion pool. The winner of the promotion pool is promoted directly to Serie A1, while the teams ranked from 2nd to 7th are qualified for the promotion playoffs. Just like in previous seasons, the winner of the playoff finals is also promoted to Serie A1.[3]
In the 2019–20 season the number of teams participating in the regular season of Serie A2 increased to 20, with 10 teams in each of the two pools. The number of teams qualified for the promotion playoffs also increased from six teams to eight teams.[4] In the 2022–23 season it was changed so only the four teams ranked from the 2nd to 5th in the promotion pool are qualified for the playoffs.[5]
