14/01/2014 11:44
Volero ZURICH ready to take on their “preferred opponent”
2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Zurich, Switzerland, January 14, 2014. The Drawing of Lots for the Playoffs 12 of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women held before the Christmas break in Luxembourg City provided Volero ZÜRICH with their “preferred opponent”, i.e. Italy’s champions RebecchiNMeccanica PIACENZA. These teams will be crossing their ways on Thursday for the first round of the Playoffs 12 and Volero hopes to score a home victory to get the right edge for the return game coming up next week in Italy.
Though they are making their first appearance in Europe’s elite club competition, PIACENZA finished atop the charts in Pool B ahead of Dinamo MOSCOW, Igtisadchi BAKU and Crvena Zvezda BEOGRAD. With their impressive performance in the last round of the prelims where they routed Dinamo MOSCOW, Italy’s champions showed their potential and their ambition to go for more in this year’s Champions League.
“However, this still remains our preferred opponent” says Volero president Stav Jacobi. “And this is true in many ways; in terms of marketing but also because this game will be a great opportunity to watch world-class Volleyball for all of our fans here in Switzerland.”
The mentor of PIACENZA, Gianni Caprara, is one of the most successful coaches in recent times. Caprara was at the helm of the Russian national team from 2005 through 2008 winning gold at the 2006 World Championship in Japan. He has worked for many of Italy’s top teams including Sirio PERUGIA, Asystel NOVARA and MC-Carnaghi VILLA CORTESE.
The current roster of the team is made of Italian, Belgian and Dutch players who have regularly played for their respective national teams. Wing-spiker Lucia Bosetti and setter Francesca Ferretti (ITA), middle-blocker Robin de Kruijf and opposite Floortje Meijners (NED), plus Lise Van Hecke (BEL) compose a very strong and solid group. Van Hecke is a bronze medallist from the 2013 European Championship where she also received the award for the Best Scorer.
“This is the real strength of PIACENZA: it is practically impossible to identify a clear leader” says Volero assistant coach Jan Lindenmair. “Their collective is their main strength and they can score from any position. They also make virtually no errors and they have deep quality also from their bench.” However, the 33-year old German coach feels like Volero still stands a chance: “We are more focused on our attack and individually have more power than they do. If we find our rhythm early on we will be able to control the Italians whose main task will then be to avoid errors. However, this is not going to be easy at all. Our mission is nevertheless very clear: our sole goal is the victory.”
Volero will be missing Romanian middle-blocker Nneka Obiamaka Onyejekwe who has moved to France to play there for RC CANNES. The team from the French Riviera is currently side-lined by the injury of their captain Victoria Ravva who still needs time to recover. Having another three options on that position – Bulgarian youngster Mira Todorova (19) plus the Serbian duo comprising Nadja Ninkovic (22) and veteran Mira Golubovic (37) – Volero president Stav Jacobi decided to transfer Onyejekwe to RC CANNES for the remainder of the season. Onyejekwe just missed the World Champs qualifier in Ankara where Romania ended up in second place after undergoing appendix surgery but she is now ready to wear the jersey of RC CANNES. However, having already played for Volero this year, she is not eligible to compete in the European Cups anymore. “We needed to support our partners from Cannes at this stage of the season” Jacobi says. “After spending almost four years with us here in Zurich, Nneka has completed her development and turned into a player who can contribute excellent support to any European top team. Her transfer to Cannes also testifies the quality of the work we are performing here.”
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