08/12/2015 16:22
LP SALO and Azeryol BAKU both set sight on CEV Cup quarterfinals
2016 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
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Salo, Finland, December 8, 2015. Finland’s LP SALO and Azerbaijan’s Azeryol BAKU seem to be sharing the same goal, i.e. to make it through to the quarterfinals of the 2016 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women, when they first meet on Thursday night at Salohalli.
Ziya Rajabov has been at the helm of Azeryol BAKU for only about one week after stepping in to replace the former mentor of the team, Aleksandr Chervyakov. “I think I am ready to take up this challenge,” he says. “I have been working with a number of experienced coaches at Rabita BAKU and now I will put together all the things I have learned from these people. I will try to bring energy to our team. LP SALO is quite a well-organised team and they play good volleyball. Our goal is to play even better,” Rajabov said at a press conference two days before the matchup with LP SALO.
LP SALO head coach Kari Raatikainen said that Azeryol BAKU is a high-level team: “We have been preparing very well for this match. We had a great camp at Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja and after that we trained and relaxed a bit. Everything has been going according to plan. The team of Azeryol BAKU has a good setter (Mareen Apitz) and the way they play is quite entertaining and nice to watch. Their left-handed opposite Katerina Zhidkova is an interesting player as well,” said the mentor of the multiple Finnish champions.
Mareen Apitz, the setter of Germany’s national team and team captain at Azeryol, said that her team is determined to perform well on Thursday night: “We have had some good matches in our national league. Now we have only one goal before the year comes to an end: sorry for LP SALO, but we want to go to the next round of the CEV Volleyball Cup - Women. I have not seen yet how the home team plays, but heard something from my former teammates at DRESDNER SC. For sure it is nice to see a Finnish team performing at this level,” Apitz said.
The Ukrainian-born outside spiker of LP SALO, Olena Lymareva, shares Apitz’s same goal, i.e. to make it to the next stage of the CEV Volleyball Cup. “We feel good at the moment. We played last year against really good teams in the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League, so we know what we are up with. We are all waiting to see our home venue Salohalli dressed up for this celebration of Volleyball,” Lymareva said with a smile.
LP SALO has been known as a tough team to beat at home. They have played 22 European Cup games at Salohalli from 2008 to 2015 with a 14-8 win-loss record. If the results from last year’s CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women are not taken into account, LP SALO’s record at home improves to 14-5.
LP SALO is playing an Azerbaijani team in the European Cups for the third time in their history. Back in the 2008-2009 season they lost to Rabita BAKU and in 2010-2011 they had to accept another setback in the quarterfinals to eventual winners Azerrail BAKU, always when performing in the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup.
Dubravka Rakic of LP SALO was just named as a Player of the Month in the Finnish Mestaruusliiga and was joined in last month’s ‘All Star Team’ by teammates Roosa Koskelo and Ronja Heikkiniemi. Heikkiniemi is the youngest player to have ever achieved this feat since her nomination was announced only a few days before she turned 17.
LP SALO easily edged Israel’s HAIFA VC by 3:0 both at home and away in the previous round of the CEV Volleyball Cup. As for Azeryol BAKU, they first lost in Romania by 0:3 to C.S.M. TARGOVISTE but came back strong to win the return match at home by the same score and also the golden set (15-13) that followed. After the first match scheduled for Thursday night in Salo, the two teams will be crossing their ways once more on December 16 in Baku.
Picture: Azeryol BAKU setter Mareen Apitz and LP SALO outside spiker Olena Lymareva are both waiting for the matchup between their teams coming up on Thursday night at Salohalli
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