UVC GRAZ welcomes top club Halkbank for CEV Challenge Cup season opener

UVC Graz, men, team photo shooting. Image shows Clemens Unterberger, Liam Ochaya, Niklas Steiner, Kemal Imsirovic, Marcell Mikulass, Jose Jardim, Tiago Pereira, Johannes Kratz, Lukas Scheucher, Mark Kremer, David Reiter, assistant coach Zoltan Mozer, head coach Robert Koch and Lorenz Koraimann (Graz). Keywords: teamphoto. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Simona Donko

Vienna, Austria. The 2021 edition of the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup will get underway on Thursday night when Austria’s UVC Holding GRAZ will be hosting Turkey’s top team Halkbank ANKARA at the Raiffeisen Sportpark, with the match starting at 7 pm local time. The roster of the Turkish team includes Austrian Volleyball superstar Alexander Berger. 

Halkbank ANKARA are one of Turkey’s heavyweights, with a resume that includes the title of the 2013 CEV Cup and a silver medal from the elite CEV Champions League in 2014. Berger, the most successful Austrian player on the international stage, has already scored as many as 91 points for Halkbank in the AXA Sigorta Efeler Ligi in seven matches contested this far. Halkbank has already won five games to sit in second place in the current standing. Berger and Co. qualified for the CEV Challenge Cup 2021 by winning the BVA Cup organised by the Balkan Volleyball Association in mid-September. 

“I am very happy to finally play again at club level in Austria. It is the first time I do so since I moved abroad [in 2014]. The atmosphere in the Raiffeisen Sportpark was always very good with the national team and I hope a few fans will be on my side on Thursday too,” said the 32-year-old Austrian, who is looking forward to “cool games”. “We will certainly not underestimate Graz.” 

The Murstadt-based team has only had one competitive game under their belt this season, losing their MEVZA League debut against the Slovenian multiple national champions and Middle European League record winners ACH Volley LJUBLJANA two weeks ago. The next Herculean task awaits them on Thursday evening. The anticipation of being able to compete with another top European club is great. “Since we have been playing internationally, we have never hosted such an opponent in Graz. We already presented ourselves well against ACH Volley, now the next task is awaiting us. Halkbank is one of the top European clubs. That will be a very big challenge. We want to do everything we can to challenge our opponents and maybe surprise them. Our security concept enables us to have up to 600 fans in the stands. We received approval for this today. The interest is very high, as the ticket inquiries show since the beginning of the week. It is going to be a great event,” says Sports Director Frederick Laure, counting on a great support even in times of coronavirus. 

Halkbank arrived in Austria on Tuesday. Laure continues: “That shows how seriously they take us!” The return match will take place in Ankara on October 15. The winner of the duel will meet Hapoel KFAR SABA (ISR) in the Challenge Cup Round of 16 at the beginning of November.

Ried against Dupnitsa at the weekend
With Union Raiffeisen WALDVIERTEL and the UVC Weberzeile RIED, two Austrian clubs are due to contest the Round of 32 in the Challenge Cup. RIED play their early duels with Marek Union Ivkoni DUPNITSA this coming weekend and have two home matches against the Bulgarians. The URW will face Lindaren Volley LUZERN (SUI) on November 4 and 10 and will have to compete away from home first. They will play their first game of the season next Saturday in the MEVZA League against OK Merkur MARIBOR, just four days later they will be playing at ACH Volley. On October 17, there will be an all-Austrian duel with SK Zadruga AICH/DOB in the JUFA Arena Bleiburg.

Sources:
CEV – European Volleyball
ÖVV – Volleyball Austria
UVC Holding Graz