lit a candle 9h agoI don't really know what to say here. Saw this come through and just sat with it a minute. Thirty five years old, went from winning a Coppa Italia to teaching English to little kids. Don't know much about volleyball but that's a whole life right there.
Their story
Stefania Corna was an Italian volleyball player from Bergamo who won two European junior titles with Italy, lifted the Coppa Italia with her hometown club Foppapedretti Bergamo in 2008 and played for the senior Italy national team in 2011. After more than a decade in Serie A1, Serie A2 and…
Stefania Corna was an Italian volleyball player from Bergamo who won two European junior titles with Italy, lifted the Coppa Italia with her hometown club Foppapedretti Bergamo in 2008 and played for the senior Italy national team in 2011. After more than a decade in Serie A1, Serie A2 and abroad, she retired from top-level volleyball and became an English teacher at primary schools. She died on 7 October 2026, aged 35, after a long illness.
Corna was born in Bergamo on 5 November 1990. She came through the youth sector of Volley Bergamo, the club then known as Foppapedretti, starting in 2003. In 2005 she was selected for Club Italia, the Italian federation's development team for the country's best young players, and spent two seasons there, playing in Serie B1. With Italy's youth teams she won the European Under 19 (Under 18) championship in 2006, the Under 18 title in 2007 according to Italian Wikipedia, and the Under 19 title again in 2008, in sides coached by Marco Mencarelli.
In the 2007-08 season she returned to Bergamo and joined the Serie A1 first team as third setter, behind the Italy great Leo Lo Bianco. That season Foppapedretti won the Coppa Italia and reached the semi-finals of the league playoffs. She then moved to Serie A2 with Life Volley Milano and Parma, coming close to promotion with both clubs, before returning to Serie A1 with Pallavolo Villanterio of Pavia (Riso Scotti Pavia) in 2010-11.
In the summer of 2011 Corna made her debut for the senior Italy national team at the Montreux Volley Masters in Switzerland, in a 1-3 defeat to Cuba on 7 June 2011. In 2011-12 she helped Cuatto Volley Giaveno win promotion to Serie A1, then played in Serie A2 for Volleyball Casalmaggiore (Pomì) and Promoball Flero of Montichiari before a mid-season move to Savino Del Bene Scandicci in 2014.
She began as a setter and later also played as a middle blocker. In 2014-15 she played abroad for the first time, with Volley Club Kanti of Schaffhausen in Switzerland's top league, and she also had a spell with the Carthage club in Tunisia. Back in Italy she played two seasons with Volley Maglie in Serie B1 from 2015 and then joined Cutrofiano in 2017, which national outlets describe as her last top-level stop. Il Fatto Quotidiano reports later spells with Corridonia, Trevi, Pesaro and finally Costa Volpino.
Away from the court, Corna married the Italian-Cuban volleyball player Alejandro Rizo Gonzalez, an opposite hitter who had trained with Bergamo's Serie A2 men's clubs. After leaving competitive volleyball she returned to her love of languages and became an English teacher in primary schools. She lived in Boltiere, in the province of Bergamo, with her family.
Corna died on Wednesday 7 October 2026, aged 35, after a long illness that she faced, in the words of L'Eco di Bergamo, with great courage and dignity. The specific illness was not made public. The Italian Volleyball Federation (FIPAV), the Lega Volley Femminile, Volley Bergamo and Savino Del Bene Scandicci all issued messages of condolence. Scandicci wrote that she would always be part of their story too. She is survived by her husband Alejandro, her parents Claudia and Stefano and her brother Attilio. Her funeral was set for Friday 9 October 2026 at 10am at the church of San Giorgio Martire in Boltiere.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (en, it); Il Fatto Quotidiano, La Gazzetta dello Sport, la Repubblica, Corriere della Sera Bergamo, L'Eco di Bergamo, Sky TG24, Bergamo.info (7-9 October 2026). Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Ci sono notizie che non vorremmo mai dover raccontare. La Savino Del Bene Volley piange la prematura scomparsa di Stefania Corna. Ciao Stefania, sarai sempre parte anche della nostra storia.”
Savino Del Bene Scandicci statement, 7 October 2026 (There is news we never want to have to tell... Goodbye Stefania, you will always be part of our story too.)
“Stefania ha indossato la maglia rossoblù, crescendo nella nostra famiglia e condividendo con noi una parte importante del suo percorso. Ciao Stefania, resterai parte della nostra storia.”
ChorusLife Volley Bergamo statement, 7 October 2026
“Con estremo dolore, la Lega Volley Femminile e tutte le Società Consorziate si stringono intorno alla famiglia di Stefania Corna, scomparsa prematuramente oggi, mercoledì 7 ottobre, dopo una lunga malattia.”
Lega Volley Femminile statement, 7 October 2026
Photos
1Stefania Corna in 2012, with Cuatto Volley Giaveno
Jan 2012 · by People Forever
same, didn't know her either but that stopped me too