09/01/2017 15:13
‘I always want to win’ – DRESDNER SC setter Lucie Smutná
2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Women
Dresden, Germany, January 9, 2017. While snow was silently falling outside of Margon Arena on Saturday, there was no such thing as silence in the competition hall where Germany’s reigning national champs and CL participant DRESDNER SC routed Allianz MTV STUTTGART 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-22). The fans went just crazy as their favourite Volleyball players beat the (until then) leaders of the Bundesliga. It looks like the team of Alexander Waibl is back on track after a difficult start to the 2016-2017 season.
Now it’s Champions League time again. Only a few hours after their important victory, DRESDNER SC departed from Dresden Airport to Ekaterinburg. On Tuesday at 15:00 (German time) the team will face Uralochka-NTMK EKATERINBURG in their second match of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League.
Setter Lucie Smutná knows exactly what she wants to achieve in Russia: “I always want to win. We will fight for every ball and then we’ll see where this is going to take us.” Her words sound determined and you can feel that she isn’t afraid of any opponent, as she is confident in herself and her team.
When you ask the Czech player about her personal dreams right now, she replies with two pretty ambitious things: participating in the Olympics with the Czech national team and winning the Champions League at some point in her career. “That would be amazing”, says the 25-year-old. Smutná grew up in Liberec and fell in love with Volleyball at the age of 12.
Only ten years later she could already cross one of her dreams off the list: playing in Italy. Via Olymp PRAHA (2010-2012) and KÖPENICKER SC (2012-2013) she came to Foppapedretti BERGAMO in 2013. Bergamo is one of the big names in the European Volleyball scene. “Foppa” won everything you can desire in Italy and Europe, i.e. the Italian national league (seven times), the Coppa Italia (six times), national Supercup (five times), the CEV Cup and the CEV Champions Cup / CEV Volleyball Champions League – as many as seven times!
“It was a special time. Italy is crazy about Volleyball. I want to play there again at some point,” she says. In 2014 she transferred to Soverato where she fell in love again - with the Italian physical trainer of the team. “It’s not easy because of the distance but he’s visiting me in Dresden at least once a month. We try to spend as much time as possible together.” This is one of her sources of power.
At that point you already think that Lucie Smutná is quite a globetrotter but she also played at USC MÜNSTER and Halkbank ANKARA before she came to DRESDNER SC this past summer. But wherever she goes, one thing is very important to her: to keep some Italian flair.
The setter is a sucker for the Italian way of life and tries to keep some of that lifestyle in the form of coffee breaks. Cappuccino in the morning, espresso after lunch. It’s almost a ritual. “For sure it’s not the same thing as in Italy as there’s nothing coming close to the taste of fresh Italian coffee but I found a pretty good machine and I’m becoming a pretty decent barista,” she says smiling. Unfortunately, she will have to live without it until Wednesday when DRESDNER SC return from Russia. But that won’t affect her as she’s a professional through and through with one goal in mind: celebrate a win over Uralochka-NTMK EKATERINBURG.
|