27/05/2015 20:37
Slovenia’s women set sight on historic qualification for EuroVolley Final Round
2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women
Maribor/Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 27, 2015. Slovenia women’s national team started the third and last qualification round for this year’s CEV Volleyball European Championship with an away victory over France last Saturday in Niort. The return match is scheduled for Friday, May 29, and will be played in Maribor, where the home heroines will have the opportunity to present themselves to their supporters in the best possible way for the first time in 2015.
The underdogs from Slovenia swept three straights sets after a nervous start of a match where they lost the opening stanza to France. The team is now only two sets away from making the Final Round that will take place later this year in the Netherlands and Belgium, something that would be a historic feat since Slovenia’s women have never made the European Championship Finals since the country’s independence back in 1991.
After a probably unexpected away victory as France were the pre-favourites going into their home match, the Slovenian players have been trying to stay focussed, thinking of the second match as if it was the first one. “We have to work really hard in these last few training sessions and then try to transfer everything we have worked on into the match. Some things were quite good in the first game, some weren’t. But we proved to ourselves that we can play well, and the victory in France gave us a lot of extra energy and motivation. On the other hand, we are very well aware that nothing is decided yet. France has a strong team, with powerful outside spikers and we have to play to win again. There is no space for any kind of calculations,” said Slovenia’s mentor Bruno Najdic to the national press on Wednesday.
The Slovenian players are also staying as focussed as possible. “Since we gathered together on the first day of our preparations we knew what our goal was. No matter if it is about physical preparation, easy or hard training, we always work 100 percent. We all know what we are here for. The motivation is at a really high level, the energy in this team was never as good as it is now and we will all give our best to claim that spot and compete in the Final Round of the European Championship,” said outside spiker Ziva Recek, who, like the other members of the team, is determined to fight through to the end for that much desired ticket to travel to the EuroVolley later this year.
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