Salo, Finland, December 19, 2016. LP SALO will be playing on Wednesday night the re-match of their fixture with Croatia’s Mladost ZAGREB on schedule for the opening round of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women. LP SALO claimed a 3-0 victory in the Croatian capital last week and as a result they ‘only’ have to take another two sets to secure their progression to the next round.
Mladost ZAGREB are Croatia’s reigning national champions, so it’s not going to be an easy task for LP SALO, the seven-time winners of the Finnish Mestaruusliiga.
“It’s going to be a tough match. I have the feeling that even though we did not play as good as we could have, our opponent maybe assumed they would have won that match easily. Maybe they were not expecting such a great and competitive team from Finland, as they are from Croatia and their country has more tradition than Finland in women’s Volleyball. They did not seem to be quite ready for that match,” said LP SALO head coach Tomi Lemminkäinen.
If they make it through to the next round, LP SALO would go for a Finnish derby with HPK HÄMEENLINNA. “This is not over yet and we need to play as good as we can in order to make it through to the next stage of the competition and of course this is what we want to achieve,” Lemminkäinen continued. “We need two sets, which is obviously an easier task to accomplish than to win three. Everything looks fine, but I believe that both teams will be playing better than they did last week in Zagreb. We know each other better now, and the level of the game is certainly going to increase.”
One of the most experienced players that LP SALO can count on is Belarusian middle blocker Vera Klimovich. She received the award for the MVP at the end of last week’s match in Zagreb. “Mladost ZAGREB have a young, good and ambitious team, so it will be an interesting match again. The victory we claimed in Zagreb provides us with a boost of confidence, but nevertheless we will have to remain focussed on the game and win again. To play in the European Cups is a very good thing for our team. We are enjoying this experience and we are growing together,” Klimovich said.
LP SALO will play Mladost ZAGREB on Wednesday night starting at 7pm local time. It will be the last game for the Finns before a short Christmas break. At the end of December LP SALO will be playing two matches in the Finnish national league, first taking on HPK HÄMEENLINNA on December 29 and one day later on LP VAMPULA, with both matches taking place at Salohalli.