Slovenia start Silver League campaign with young team and quite some optimism

The women’s national team of Slovenia is ready for the start of their campaign in the 2021 edition of the CEV Volleyball European Silver League. On Thursday, they will compete against Austria in the opening match of the first round-robin tournament hosted by Luxembourg.

Although this year’s national team season did not start that well for Slovenia, as they failed to qualify for #EuroVolleyW, the Slovenians are aiming to improve on the silver medal they won in the 2019 edition of the Silver League, when they lost to Romania in the finals at the Golden Set. They have quite a different squad though, even comparing to the one that contested the EuroVolley qualifiers just recently, with Gregor Rozman replacing Alessandro Chiappini as the head coach of the team.

“The main goal is to qualify for the Golden League. We know that we need to start every match with great determination. The players have to be eager to prove themselves, always showing their strong desire for a good performance. We definitely have to serve well, and have to show a solid block-defence game too. I expect a fighting, tough, and energetic Slovenia,” commented Rozman before his debut on the national team bench.

Darja Eržen and Leja Janežič are among the most experienced players on the roster. They were both extremely important in the EuroVolley qualifiers and they will be the key players in the Silver League too. The opposite, Darja Eržen is optimistic: “Given the short time for preparation we had, it seems to me that we managed to find our rhythm quite well and we can also see a mutual trust, even though we are a fairly new team. Of course, having the friendly matches with Austria about a month ago is a big advantage. We want three points and I think we can do that. We can really play here to be ready for the Final Four tournament and to make the most of the qualities of this team,” said the 23-year-old after arriving in Luxembourg.

Her teammate Janežič is also looking forward to the upcoming matches: “We have only been together as a whole team since Monday, so we have had very little time to practice. In the opening match, we will face the Austrians, who, in my opinion, are the best team in the group. Probably it will be the most difficult match of the tournament. Since we are already qualified for the final tournament, these matches will be very useful for us to prepare as well as possible and we cannot wait for the competition to start.” The 28-year-old libero is the oldest player in an extremely young line-up.