HAC Nuoro beat Mezzocorona 26:24 in the women's Serie A on Friday, 19 September. The hosts held on after a match that stayed close throughout. Both sides began the campaign with a draw and zero points before this result changed the balance.
The opening exchanges were evenly matched, as you might expect from two teams yet to taste victory. Nuoro took a narrow lead early on, but Mezzocorona refused to let them breathe. There is no value left at that number when the score stays within two goals for so long, and both sides knew it.
The prediction gave Nuoro a 63 per cent chance, and the home side delivered. It wasn't a statement win — one mistake ends it in this kind of game — but they managed the second half better when the tension built. The away end never stopped, though, keeping pressure on until the final whistle.
Both teams sit on zero points after one game each. Nuoro are eighth, Mezzocorona eleventh. The gap in the table is meaningless at this stage, but the result does shift something. The home side have something to build on; the visitors will look at how they could have taken more from this encounter.
Nuoro's recent form shows they can be vulnerable — a 25:26 loss to Conversano last weekend suggests they are not yet a finished product. Mezzocorona have lost three of their last four meetings against the same opposition, but this time they kept it tighter. A fourth straight defeat would have been harsh, and they had their moments.