Europeans Abroad: Vargas opens the season in China with 20 points

European volleyball players are spread all over the world during the 2023-2024 club season, playing big roles in their teams. Many of them are currently away from the continent, competing in some of the top leagues on the planet, and we’ll help you follow their journeys by providing periodic updates on how they’re doing.

China

The Most Valuable Player of the 2023 CEV EuroVolley, Turkish star opposite Melissa Vargas had a strong start to her club season in the Chinese Women’s League, where she’s been playing for three years.

The 24-year-old opposite led defending champions Tianjin Bohai Bank to a three-set victory over Shandong Rizhao Steel with a match-high 20 points. Shandong have Montenegrin opposite Nikoleta Perović in their squad – she scored two points.

Other Europeans picking up wins in the opening weekend of the season in the country were Russian Anna Lazareva and Serbian Katarina Lazović, who helped Beijing BAIC Motor top Hebei Hairui 3-1 with 18 points each, Serbian Brankica Mihajlović (17 points) and Bulgarian Hristina Vuchkova (9), who saw their Liaoning Tengda defeat Zhejiang Jiaxing Xitang 3-0, and Dutch Iris Scholten (5), Serbian Jelena Blagojević (18) and Ukrainian Oleksandra Bytsenko, who contributed to Shenzhen Zhongsai’s 3-2 victory over Yunnan University.

Brazil

Russian Sofya Kuznetsova and Bulgarian Dobriana Rabadzhieva lifted their first trophy with new club Dentil Praia Clube, helping the Brazilian giants take gold at the Mineiro Championship on Tuesday, with a three-set win over rivals Gerdau Minas. Kuznetsova led Praia’s offense with 20 points, while Rabadzhieva added ten.

The teams met again on Friday, now for the Brazilian Supercup, and this time Praia had to settle for silver with a five-set loss despite Kuznetsova’s 33 points.

Serbian outside hitter Aleksandra Uzelac, who’s also in her first season in the country, will attempt to secure her first title with Fluminense as they face rivals SESC Flamengo in the final of the Carioca Championship on Monday.

Japan

The weekend round in the Japanese Men’s V. League featured a pair of exciting duels involving European players Bartosz Kurek and Krisztián Pádár and their teams, who ended up splitting wins.

On Saturday, the Hungarian opposite was huge as his team Toray Arrows downed Kurek’s Wolfdogs Nagoya in five sets with a 35-point performance – the Polish world champion scored 24. On Sunday, Nagoya got the win, prevailing in four sets, despite Pádár outscoring Kurek again, this time by a single point (23 to 22).

Two other European stars met over the weekend, with Russian opposite Dmitriy Muserskiy and his Suntory Sunbirds beating Slovenian national team captain Tine Urnaut and his JTEKT Stings twice in four sets. On Saturday, Muserskiy scored 34 points to Urnaut’s nine and on Sunday the Russian outscored the Slovenian by 26 to 13.

The women’s V. League also had four Europeans in action and two of them led their teams to perfect weekends, with a pair of wins. One of them was Italian opposite Sylvia Nwakalor, who scored 37 points on Saturday as the Toray Arrows topped the Okayama Seagulls in the tie-breaker and 27 on Sunday, when they overcame the Prestige International Aranmare in four.

Serbian outside hitter Sara Lozo and the Saitama Ageo Medics had a perfect weekend, getting sweeps against the Kurobe AquaFairies on Saturday and Hitachi Astemo Rivale on Sunday. Lozo tallied 12 points in the first match and 17 in the second.

Belgian Lise Van Hecke scored 40 points in a win and loss with the Toyota Auto Body Queenseis while Turkish outside hitter Derya Cebecioğlu produced 42 points, but saw her Kurobe AquaFairies drop both matches of the weekend.