27/02/2017 15:45
Rising Beach Volleyball star Mol aims for indoor success with Noliko MAASEIK
2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men
Maaseik, Belgium, February 27, 2017. With only one victory out of five matches, Noliko MAASEIK have no chances to qualify for the playoff stage of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League – Men anymore. Yet, the Belgian vice-champions want to finish this season’s European campaign with a peak performance against Dinamo MOSCOW.
A second pool victory would be a success for the young Belgian team. “We believe in our chances and we want to finish this Champions League campaign in style,” says teenager Anders Berntsen Mol.
“This is my baby team.” That is how Noliko MAASEIK head coach Daniel Castellani described his young team last November after it captured a spot in the pool phase of Europe’s elite club competition. The youngest of all these babies is Anders Mol, a Norwegian rookie who has a tremendous record at the age of 19: with three CEV European Beach Volleyball titles under his belt (twice U20 and one more crown in the U22 category), he’s got the right to call himself one of the best rising Beach Volleyball stars of his generation.
“Last summer I decided to go for the experience of a professional indoor Volleyball player. With Noliko MAASEIK, I made the perfect choice: Castellani is a top trainer, and the organisation of the team is perfect. I had never expected to make so many appearances in the Champions League or in the Belgian league, where the level is quite high.”
However, the Champions League proved to be the highest of all levels. “In our first pool game in Moscow, we didn’t know what to expect. Yet, we won a set and we even missed the opportunity for more. But this game gave us the confidence that we could compete with some of the best teams in Europe,” Anders recalls.
With a personal peak performance, Mol also wants to forget a scary episode in his career. Early in January, he suffered a collapsed lung. “I had to rest for a couple of weeks and I was not allowed to travel by plane. So one of the Maaseik fans drove me all the way to Poland for our game in Kedzierzyn-Kozle.”
The lung problem is only a bad souvenir by now. “I feel completely healthy again, ready for Wednesday’s match. Even if some of my teammates are suffering with a couple of minor injuries, we want to win at least a couple of sets against Dinamo MOSCOW this Wednesday. We just have to continue to believe in our chances and finish this Champions League campaign in style.”
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