Calcit Volley KAMNIK the underdogs as CEV Challenge Cup resumes in Milano

Kamnik, Slovenia. Calcit Volley KAMNIK will challenge Italian heavyweight Allianz Powervolley MILANO on Tuesday as action in the men’s CEV Challenge Cup 2021 resumes with the 8th Finals and quarterfinals organised in a series of ‘bubbles’. The eventual winners of the clash between KAMNIK and MILANO will play Dinamo BUCURESTI of Romania or Bulgaria’s Marek Union Ivkoni DUPNITSA on Wednesday for a spot in the semis. 

In the last five years, Calcit Volley KAMNIK has played twice against Italian teams. Both times, these matches came after the Slovenians reached the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup. Two seasons ago, Vero Volley MONZA were the winners – and back in 2014, another Italian side, Andreoli LATINA, prevailed. Certainly, the international experience will be on the side of the Milano team.

The head coach of Calcit Volley, Gregor Jeroncic, played in Italy for more than a decade and won the Italian championship with both TRENTINO Volley and Bre Banca Lannutti CUNEO. “It would be too much to say that we will win in Milano. The fact is that they play a much faster volleyball than we do and that is their big advantage. Their team is top notch, now Tine Urnaut has joined them as well; in any case, we will play against top players who can show Volleyball of the finest level, but of course that does not mean we will go to Italy on a holiday trip. Since we are playing a match only, the possibility of causing a surprise is of course somewhat greater. Our goal will be to play our best game, but we will definitely gain some experience after this match,” he said. 

Gregor Jeroncic, the head coach of Calcit Volley, spent most of his competitive career in the Italian national league 

“In the Italian Serie A, Volleyball is played much faster than in the Slovenian league. This is one of the advantages of Milano. If we want to achieve something, we will have to take a lot more risks than we usually do at home, especially with opening balls, and we will have to use our head in the attack so that we can attack outside of the established framework. It is true that we also have a few players on our team with experience from playing at this level, but Volleyball is a team game and an individual cannot achieve much on his own. As I keep emphasising, the game starts with the reception and ends with the attack and vice versa, it starts with the serve and ends with the reconstruction of the defence. We must be aware, however, that whoever plays in the Italian highest league plays in it for a reason; that he is in it because of his quality. Only the best ones are playing there.” 

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News:
CEV – European Volleyball
OZS – Volleyball Federation of Slovenia
Calcit Volley KAMNIK