29/10/2018 15:09
Multi-national Romanian ‘Tigers’ aiming high
News from the clubs
Bucharest, Romania, October 29, 2018. The ‘Tigers’ of C.S.M. BUCURESTI trained for the first time together under the guidance of Ferhat Akbas just two days before their first official match of the 2018/2019 season. Saturday they won the match with C.S.M. TARGOVISTE, so they caught a promising start to the still very young season.
Romania’s national champions trained Thursday evening with a full squad for the first time. Dutchwomen Maret Balkestein-Grothues and Nicole Koolhaas as well as Japan’s Kanami Tashiro and Kotoe Inoue joined their colleagues after participating in the World Championship in Japan.
Later in the weekend, C.S.M. BUCURESTI stormed to a 3-2 victory over C.S.M. TARGOVISTE in the opening round of the Romanian A1 league. The expectations are high, since the team from the Romanian capital will be fighting for glory in the CEV Volleyball Champions League, as well as in the Romanian national league and national cup.
“We are really excited and really motivated for the new season, even though we know it will very tough,” coach Akbas said. “We will try our best, we have been together since Thursday only, so it will not be easy, especially in the first games, but we are ready. Our first goal is to defend the national championship title. For sure, it will not be that easy, because our domestic opponents have good teams. Additionally, we have the Champions League, where we do not know yet whom we will be playing. We tried to take the best players to our club and of course, we have different Volleyball cultures, different mentalities. We will try to make them all together work as a team and we will use our power to be the eventual champions again.”
Three captains from three elite national teams
Just one week after the end of the World Championship in Japan, Maret Balkestein-Grothues, 30, joined her new colleagues. The captain of the Dutch national team wants to claim the title of Romanian champion along with C.S.M. BUCURESTI and believes that the team the club has built this summer is a strong one.
“I think we have a good team, especially since we have top players in our team,” she says. “I think it is good to meet some different cultures and play together, as you can learn something from every culture. We want to reach the best possible result and that means to become the champions in the Romanian league. It is always good to play Champions League, since you can challenge yourself as a player and as a team. We do not know what the draw will give us, so we have to wait for the results and after that we will prepare accordingly.”
Besides Maret, C.S.M. BUCURESTI have another two captains in the team: Nadiia Kodola and Adina Salaoru, who captain the Ukrainian and Romanian national teams, respectively. Japanese setter Naoko Hashimoto is the team captain of C.S.M. BUCURESTI this season.
The roster of C.S.M. BUCURESTI includes 14 players from five different countries:
Romania: Alexandra Sobo, Adina Salaoru, Alexandra Partnoi, Adelina Budăi-Ungureanu and Francesca Ioana Alupei
Japan: Naoko Hashimoto, Kotoe Inoue, Kanami Tashiro, An Saita
The Netherlands: Nicole Koolhaas, Maret Balkestein-Grothues
Ukraine: Iryna Trushkina, Nadiia Kodola
Belarus: Tatsiana Markevich
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