VC WIESBADEN aiming for #CEVChallengeCupW 8th Finals

Erfurt - Roeselare - Potsdam: The speedometer of the VC WIESBADEN team bus will easily show more than 2,700 kilometres driven within just eight days. After the narrow victory of the team coached by Benedikt Frank at Schwarz-Weiß ERFURT in the German Cup last Saturday, the first European appearance in Roeselare, Belgium, is on the agenda on Wednesday. Only three days later, the team will move to Potsdam for their next fixture in the Bundesliga. It is a very challenging programme, especially since VC WIESBADEN will have to play three times away from home within the space of a few days only.

The victory in Erfurt after a 15-12 tiebreaker had to be processed on the bus on the way home and quickly ‘forgotten’. Benedikt Frank and his assistant coaches Christian Sossenheimer and Daniel Ramirez Santana are faced with the task of anchoring the ‘idea of Europe’ in the minds of all team members. This is no easy task, not least because many of the teams in European competitions do not know each other at all or only from a few direct encounters. Nevertheless, there is an initial external ‘assessment’ from fans: on Tuesday at noon, the CEV website reported a 60 per cent probability of victory for VC WIESBADEN against Bevo Rekkenshop ROESELARE in the 16th Finals of the CEV Challenge Cup. 

Benedikt Frank, however, is unimpressed by this fan vote: “The Belgian league is a good one. For example, the country is ranked 14th in the FIVB world rankings, just two places behind Germany. As it is well known, we had very good experiences with national player Jodie Guilliams last season. We are not taking the whole thing lightly. After all, we are facing a different playing culture on a court that is new to us and in a hall that we are not familiar with. It is important that we adapt quickly to what we have identified from the videos. We certainly have a chance of progressing, but we will look at what happens next when we have won more sets than Bevo after the second leg on November 15.”

About Bevo Rekkenshop ROESELARE 

The team was formed in 2023 from the merger of the first teams of Hermes Volley OOSTENDE and Bevo ROESELARE. Head Coach Koen Devos is now in charge. Apart from the 180 cm ‘small’ diagonal player Kory White, he has all Belgian athletes on the team. The Canadian previously played for Hermes Volley in Oostende and was also active in Hungary with Szent Benedek BALATONFÜRED. Charlotte Leys also comes from Oostende. The 34-year-old outside hitter has the most experience, having played in Poland for Grot Budowlani LODZ and in Türkiye for Galatasaray ISTANBUL and BURSA BBSK. 

The arena

Roeselare’s impressive arena - the Tomabel Hall on Diksmuidesteenweg - has around 2,000 seats (nearly the same number as Wiesbaden’s Hexenkessel on Platz der Deutschen Einheit) and was, as an example, the venue for the semi-final of the European Golden League 2023 between Belgium and Sweden. The match between Bevo Rekkenshop and VC WIESBADEN will be refereed by Mark Jan Wijnstra (Netherlands) and Mathilde Hayaux du Tilly (France).