Francesca Piccinini (ITA, Volleyball)

The Italian national volleyball team came to the Philippines in the late 1990's to compete in the FIVB World Grand Prix Volleyball players Maurizia Cacciatori and Francesca Piccinini stood out for their good looks and mean talent. Perhaps the visits by those high caliber teams did much to sow the seeds of popularity of Philippine women's volleyball.

   

Photos from Marziacrem87 and parmavolleygirls

Piccinini is a spiker for Italian club team Volley Bergamo, Francesca won Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors at the 2009-2010 season of the Indesit Champions League, the same year her team won the championship trophy.

She competed in three editions of the Olympic Games (Sydney, Athens, and Beijing). Piccinini was part of the Italian team that bagged World Championship gold in Germany back in 2002. 

Throughout her long international career, Francesca has won a total of two European Championship gold medals, a gold at the World Grand Cup Champions League, a gold at the FIVB World Cup.

Sources:
Wikipedia Profile
Italian League Profile

Maurizia Cacciatori (ITA, Volleyball Beauty)

I wasn't really keen on volleyball, much less watching the game. But when the Manila leg of the Volleyball Grand Prix featured lookers from the Italian, Russian and Japanese teams, I was instantly hooked!

Photos from quotidiano.net and volleyballphilately.com

In the Philippines, people went head over heels about the diminutive yet lovely Brazilian spiker, Leila Barros. I, on the other hand, was enamored by the Mediterranean beauty of Maurizia Cacciatori.

Cacciatori, now long since retired from competitive sport, stands at 1.78m and played the dribbler position. She made her debut into top tier Italian volleyball Sirio Perugia for four years. Her professional career lasted until 2007. Cacciatori was a long time Italian international, having a total of 228 appearances for the Azurri. She helped the Italian squad garner a bronze in the European Championships in 1999 and a silver in the same competition 2 years later, losing to the Russians in the final.