A New German 1. Bundesliga Season On The Way

The German national team completed the summer season with a perfect performance by securing their spot in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Now, it is time for the kickoff of the national league. While the first team to take the court is #CLVolleyM participant SVG Lüneburg, all 12 teams will try to reach the top eight positions in the regular season to advance to the quarterfinals. Let’s take a closer look at the top teams in the country. 

Without a doubt, the clear favorite will be the champions of the last seven editions, Berlin Recycling Volleys. The club has dominated the national tournaments for years, and last year they won the domestic title, cup, and supercup, as well as a quarterfinal in the CEV Champions League Volley. They also started this season quite well, taking the first gold medal of the season by receiving the top standing in the German Supercup.

Under the guidance of their new coach, British expert Joel Banks, we see some major changes in the roster. The team said goodbye to American opposite Benjamin Patch, German middle blocker Anton Brehme, and Finnish outside hitter Antti Ronkainen. While liberos Satoshi Tsuiki and Adam Kowalski will continue to wear the same jersey, domestic setter Johannes Tille stays on the roster. We see a few changes in the outside hitter position as well: American Cody Kessel, French Timothee Carle, and German Ruben Schoot will maintain their top performances. German Daniel Malescha and his compatriots Leon Dervisaj and Tobias Krick will push their limits in their first season with the club. 

Even though BR Volleys won their first trophy of the season, which shows how powerful they will become, things will be difficult. One of the biggest threats is SVG Lüneburg. The other CEV Champions League Volley squad finished last season in third place, and their aim is to change the color of the medal this time.

The club will continue their way with head coach Stefan Hübner, but we see quite big changes in the roster: The team completely changed their middle blocker rotation, welcoming two Americans, Blake Leeson and Matthew Knigge, as well as domestic Joscha Kunstmann. They also replaced their former setter Joe Worsley with Canadian Maxwell Elgert and agreed with American Matt Slivinski, Canadian Jesse Elser, and German Theo Mohwinkel as the outside hitters. The libero Gage Worsley and opposites German Yann Böhme and Canadian Xander Ketrzynski are the players that stay on the team.

The Lüneburg side, of course, needs some time to reach their top-level game, and we will all watch what happens between these two clubs during the club volleyball season. Do you also want to find out if the dominance of BR Volleys might be broken this year in Germany? Then, all you need to do is keep your eyes on the German 1. Bundesliga.