Club Volleyball

#CLVolleyW: The superfinalists

Preview

Article Wed, Nov 17 2021
Author: Nikolay Markov
Nikolay Markov

Last season’s Super Final of the women’s CEV Champions League Volley delivered a memorable five-set clash between giants. Italy’s A. Carraro Imoco Conegliano came back from a set down twice in that thrilling star-studded match to triumph with the trophy after a tie-breaker win over Turkey’s VakifBank Istanbul.

VakifBank’s Haak against Imoco’s triple block in a Super Final 2021 action

Exactly 200 days later, these two amazing teams are exactly a week away from launching their new Champions League campaigns and I am taking a look at how they are doing...

A. Carraro Imoco Conegliano (ITA)

Looking at that Super Final victory from today’s perspective, it could have been just a routine casual win for Imoco, just one of the 73 wins in a row in all competitions, with which they tied VakifBank’s Guinness world record from 2012 - 2014 last Sunday. But for the club from Conegliano it was a historic victory, which brought them the last major trophy still missing from their collection. Now they are simultaneously the reigning club champions of the world, of Europe and of Italy, as well as national cup holders and national super cup holders. All this undoubtedly gives them the laurels of the world’s strongest team at the moment, but also gives them a status of responsibility they have to keep living up to.

At the start of this season, they already defended one of these titles. On October 2, Imoco mastered a 3-1 victory over the previous Champions League winners, Igor Gorgonzola Novara, to claim this year’s Supercoppa Italiana trophy. They have also won all eight of their Italian league matches since the start of the season and lead the standings unbeaten. However, to blink a red light on their journey to extending their winning streak, and to show the world that they are actually human, three of their last four league wins came only after hard-fought five-set battles.

Coach Daniele Santarelli has been able to retain the core of last season’s stellar squad, with Polish setter Joanna Wolosz, middle blockers Raphaela Folie of Italy and Robin de Kruijf of the Netherlands, and four top-level Italian internationals, recently crowned European champions with their national team - opposite Paola Egonu, outside hitter Miriam Sylla, libero Monica De Gennaro and middle Sarah Fahr – all still on Imoco’s roster for the new club season. A few of the other retained domestic athletes, like outside Loveth Oghosasere Omoruyi and setter Giulia Gennari, have also been getting playing opportunities since the start of the new season, while receiver Lara Caravello has been taking to the court mostly as a libero.

The two major departures, those of American outsides Kimberly Hill and McKenzie Adams, were offset by attracting another two quality American outsides, Megan Courtney and Kathryn Plummer. To make the team even stronger, Imoco have welcomed Bulgarian middle Hristina Vuchkova, the most prolific blocker of EuroVolley 2021, and young opposite Giorgia Frosini, 2021 U20 world champion with Italy.

Next Wednesday, Imoco will open their Champions League title defence with a Pool E home fixture against Serbian rookies Ub. Hungary’s Fatum Nyiregyhaza and Poland’s Grupa Azoty Chemik Police are the other two teams in the pool.

VakifBank Istanbul (TUR)

VakifBank’s Guinness world record for most consecutive wins in all competitions may be slipping out of their hands, but they are still the most decorated club of the 21st century in the world of women’s volleyball. Since the creation of the Champions League in 2000-2001, the Istanbul powerhouse have won it four times and made runners-up another three times. They have also won the FIVB Club World Championship a record-high three times and made it to the podium another three times. And these are achievements it will take a while to beat, especially if VakifBank don’t stop winning, which they obviously have no intention to.

Italian specialist Giovanni Guidetti, arguably the most successful women’s coach of the century, is still leading VakifBank and his team is just as strong as ever. They started the new season by reclaiming the Turkish super cup on October 5, when they produced an emphatic shutout of cross-town archrivals Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul. They are well on track to defending their national championship title, leading the current standings on an 8-1 win-loss record and a better set ratio than Fenerbahce Opet Istanbul, the only team that have been able to beat them (3-1 on October 16) since May’s Super Final.

Guidetti played that Super Final against Imoco with the same starting seven in each of the five sets. Although as many as five of these outstanding athletes – Swedish opposite Isabelle Haak, outside hitters Gabriela Guimaraes of Brazil and Michelle Bartsch-Hackley of USA, and Turkey’s middle blocker Zehra Gunes and libero Ayca Aykac - are still competing for the club, his starting line-up has been more difficult to predict this season.

It is almost impossible to make up for the loss of the other two starters, the prominent Serbian tandem of playmaker Maja Ognjenovic and middle blocker Milena Rasic, who are no longer with VakifBank. Turkish national team setter Cansu Ozbay has stayed with the team with the responsibility to fill the gap left by Ognjenovic as the main conductor of Guidetti’s squad, backed by the return of talented young playmaker Buket Gulubay. The middle of the net has been taken care of mostly by Kubra Akman and the only new foreign addition to the roster, USA’s Chiaka Ogbogu, who transferred from Eczacibasi. VakifBank have also retained outside hitter Tugba Senoglu and middle blocker and captain Melis Gurkaynak, who have been getting quite a lot of playing time in the Turkish league so far. So have returnee Derya Cebecioglu (outside) and newcomers Aylin Acar (libero) and Turkish national team’s scoring machine Meryem Boz (opposite).

VakifBank will start their participation in the upcoming Champions League with a home match against their toughest opponent in Pool B, Italy’s Vero Volley Monza. Then they will also have to face some tough challenges from Finland’s LP Salo and France’s ASPTT Mulhouse.

#CLVolleyW