Calcit Volley re-start European campaign against Viteos NEUCHATEL
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After losing to SC Prometey DNIPRO of Ukraine in the early rounds of the elite CEV Champions League, Calcit Volley will continue their European journey in the 16th Finals of the CEV Cup. They will lock horns with Viteos NEUCHATEL UC, who lost in the third round of the #CLVolleyW to the very same Ukrainian team. The first match between the best teams of Slovenia and Switzerland will be taking place on Wednesday, November 17, at 5 pm, with the return following on November 25 in Switzerland.
The current Swiss national champions, who broke the nine-year dominance of Volero in 2019 and repeated their success last season – the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic cut the season short in 2020 - eliminated Mladost ZAGREB in the second round of the Champions League. They recorded a 3-0 away victory before taking the two sets they needed at home – and ultimately winning the re-match as well by 3-2. Their next and last opponent in the strongest European club competition was an acquaintance of Calcit KAMNIK, SC Prometey DNIPRO. The Ukrainians won 3-0 in Neuchatel and 3-1 at home. In short, Calcit Volley has had more than enough opportunities to get to know the game of their Swiss rivals.
Gregor Rozman“Viteos is a mature team that plays very good volleyball. All of the starting players have studied in the US, so their game leans heavily toward the American volleyball school, with a lot of energy in the game itself. We will have to show a good performance if we want to get a positive result from these two matches."
Head coach of Calcit KAMNIK
Swiss women’s Volleyball has made great strides in recent years. Not only the clubs, with Volero a regular contestant of the CEV Champions League, but their national team too – which appeared at the last EuroVolley, where Slovenia was not present.
"Quite a few Swiss national team players play in foreign European leagues. It is a fact, however, that there is still a difference between club and national team and that Viteos has three Americans in its ranks, especially both receivers, Tia Scambray and Kyra Holt are very dangerous in attack and the third is their middle-blocker, Jasmine Julianne Gross. Moreover, Croatian opposite Barbara Djapić, who is their fourth foreigner, also studied in the USA, while setter Olivia Wassner, middle-blocker Samira Sulser and libero Fabiana Mottis are also in the first line-up. In short, the team is very, very good,” said Rozman respectfully about the Swiss team, but he is much happier that his side will compete with them rather than once again with the Ukrainians.
“It is definitely better for us to play with the Swiss than with the Ukrainians. Firstly, because of the travel itself, as it will be much easier to travel to Switzerland than to Dnipro, and despite everything, Prometey is still stronger. The Swiss were a shade worse than the Ukrainians in both matches, but we must not forget that Viteos smoothly defeated Mladost in Zagreb in the second round of the Champions League. I repeat it once again, we will have to play both matches at the highest level, focused from the first to the last point, if we want to hope for a good result,” Rozman adds.
It is encouraging, however, that the game of Calcit Volley has been at a fairly high level since the unexpected defeat with Šempeter in the domestic championship, which took place only three days after the loss to Prometey. Still not at its highest, but there are not any big fluctuations.
Gregor Rozman“We try to keep our performance as high as possible in every game, although in these situations, when we had some injury problems and still have them, and when we had a series of games one after the other, we did not have any normal training. However, it all comes together, it is all a normal process in this November and December period that is still ahead of us. We have to come to terms with this and get the most out of it all.”
Head coach of Calcit KAMNIK
The coach of the Swiss team is the former Australian national team player Lauren Bertolacci, who sits on their bench for the third straight season.