02/04/2015 11:27
Italian Butterflies ready for their second Final Four appearance
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Busto Arsizio, Italy, April 2, 2015. Italy’s Unendo Yamamay BUSTO ARSIZIO will celebrate this weekend their second appearance in a Final Four tournament of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League after two years ago they won a historic bronze medal in Istanbul. On Saturday they will play hosts Chemik POLICE in the semis at the Azoty Arena in Szczecin and this is not going to be an easy task as the home heroines will be supported by more than 5,000 fans. About 100 supporters of UYBA are going to travel to Poland as well, but it won’t be easy for them to stand the competition brought by the cheers of the passionate Polish crowd.
The roster is complete with Valentina Diouf and Giulia Pisani – who left the court before the end of their last match in the national league – back in shape and the same applies to outside spiker Valentina Rania, who has been battling with flu lately.
The semifinal with Chemik POLICE will not be an easy task for Unendo Yamamay as the hosts can count on a very competitive roster well managed by Italian-born mentor Giuseppe Cuccarini. Serbian setter Maja Ognjenovic is well-known in Italy for she played in Jesi and Modena, as does the evergreen Malgorzata Glinka-Mogentale. Serbian middle blocker Stefana Veljkovic also played in Italy for Asystel NOVARA and MC-Carnaghi VILLA CORTESE. The starting line-up is completed by Serbian opposite Ana Bjelica, outside spiker Anna Werblinska, middle-blocker Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza and libero Mariola Zenik.
“We are very excited and we just can’t wait for the semifinal to come,” says Unendo Yamamay’s team captain Francesca Marcon. “We had a great journey throughout the previous rounds and perhaps it is quite unexpected that we have made it to the Finals. However, we always fought through to the end and we deserve to be there. We know that Chemik POLICE have a strong team with many experienced players but we will be doing our best also to please our fans who are coming to Szczecin with us.”
The campaign of the Butterflies will be extensively covered also on social media with the hashtags #ChampionsLeague and #UYBAf4. The club has also set up a special Facebook event page, UYBA@Stettino, where fans can post and share photos, videos and thoughts about the Final Four.
Click here for the official website of the Final Four in Szczecin and follow the event on facebook.com/FinalFourCEV2015 and twitter.com/Final4CEV2015.
Click here for more detailed info on the competition.
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