Volleyball
14 players selected for France women’s ‘Euromission’
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Article Fri, Apr 24 2015
Paris, France, April 24, 2015. The mentor of France women’s national team, Magali Magail, has disclosed the names of the 14 players that will be fighting for promotion to the Final Round of the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women once France plays Slovenia on May 23 and 29. The European Championship Final Round is scheduled for September 26-October 4 and will be co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium with matches taking place in the cities of Antwerp, Apeldoorn, Eindhoven and Rotterdam.
“The list was prepared by taking into account some absences,” Magail explains. “Christina Bauer will undergo surgery at the end of her campaign in the Turkish national league whilst Myriam Kloster can’t attend because of personal reasons. On the other hand, some more experienced players have decided to put an end to their career with the national team. We have decided to continue with the work we did last year with a group of young players supported by two who have more experience on the international stage, i.e. our liberos Déborah Ortschitt and Alexandra Rochelle. The only real addition to the group is Ludmilla Lican who performed really well in the second half of the domestic season with her team from Hainault.”
Since this is a young group, coach Magail admits that the players still lack experience but they “have already spent one season together. Last year we had ups and downs with a disappointing performance in our first tournament whilst everything went just perfect in the second one we played in Israel. I think that the players felt a lot of pressure, especially at the beginning, as they really wanted to qualify straight to the Final Round but they did not have any international experience yet.”
The group of players selected by Magali Magail will start preparing for the matches with Slovenia on May 10, will spend four days together and then resume their work on May 17 in Switzerland playing also a friendly match with the local national team. On May 18 they will then move to Niort, the city which is going to host their home game with Slovenia on May 23. “There is not so much time to prepare since the players from the teams playing in the finals of the national league will complete their duties on May 9 and this means that we will have to work well right from the start of our preparations,” Magail admits. “This explains why we have selected only 14 players for these camps, including two setters, two liberos and two middle blockers. We can’t afford that the players will start competing for a spot on the team, we need to have immediately a clear picture about who is going to play.”
As far as Slovenia is concerned, the French coach says: “They won silver at last year’s U20 European Championship, which means they have many young, talented players who are coming up strong. Last year they also participated in the European League and this way you can sense that their Federation is focusing and investing on the women’s national team. We stand a chance but it won’t be that easy. We have to be able to handle the pressure, but of course our goal is to make the European Championship Final Round in order to continue with the development and growth of this young group.”
The 14 players called up by coach Magali Magail are:
Setters: Laurianne Delabarre, Mallory Steux
Liberos: Déborah Ortschitt, Alexandra Rochelle
Middle Blockers: Marion Gauthier-Rat, Silvana Dascalu, Isaline Sager-Weider
Outside Spikers: Astrid Souply, Clémentine Drouenne, Kim Nowak, Alexia Djilali, Elisabeth Fedele
Opposite: Maéva Orle, Ludmilla Lican
“The list was prepared by taking into account some absences,” Magail explains. “Christina Bauer will undergo surgery at the end of her campaign in the Turkish national league whilst Myriam Kloster can’t attend because of personal reasons. On the other hand, some more experienced players have decided to put an end to their career with the national team. We have decided to continue with the work we did last year with a group of young players supported by two who have more experience on the international stage, i.e. our liberos Déborah Ortschitt and Alexandra Rochelle. The only real addition to the group is Ludmilla Lican who performed really well in the second half of the domestic season with her team from Hainault.”
Since this is a young group, coach Magail admits that the players still lack experience but they “have already spent one season together. Last year we had ups and downs with a disappointing performance in our first tournament whilst everything went just perfect in the second one we played in Israel. I think that the players felt a lot of pressure, especially at the beginning, as they really wanted to qualify straight to the Final Round but they did not have any international experience yet.”
The group of players selected by Magali Magail will start preparing for the matches with Slovenia on May 10, will spend four days together and then resume their work on May 17 in Switzerland playing also a friendly match with the local national team. On May 18 they will then move to Niort, the city which is going to host their home game with Slovenia on May 23. “There is not so much time to prepare since the players from the teams playing in the finals of the national league will complete their duties on May 9 and this means that we will have to work well right from the start of our preparations,” Magail admits. “This explains why we have selected only 14 players for these camps, including two setters, two liberos and two middle blockers. We can’t afford that the players will start competing for a spot on the team, we need to have immediately a clear picture about who is going to play.”
As far as Slovenia is concerned, the French coach says: “They won silver at last year’s U20 European Championship, which means they have many young, talented players who are coming up strong. Last year they also participated in the European League and this way you can sense that their Federation is focusing and investing on the women’s national team. We stand a chance but it won’t be that easy. We have to be able to handle the pressure, but of course our goal is to make the European Championship Final Round in order to continue with the development and growth of this young group.”
The 14 players called up by coach Magali Magail are:
Setters: Laurianne Delabarre, Mallory Steux
Liberos: Déborah Ortschitt, Alexandra Rochelle
Middle Blockers: Marion Gauthier-Rat, Silvana Dascalu, Isaline Sager-Weider
Outside Spikers: Astrid Souply, Clémentine Drouenne, Kim Nowak, Alexia Djilali, Elisabeth Fedele
Opposite: Maéva Orle, Ludmilla Lican