Young Slovenians aiming high at #EuroVolleyU17W in Podgorica

Ljubljana, Slovenia. The U17 women’s national team of Slovenia arrived in Montenegro’s capital yesterday and tested the court at the Verde Sports Centre in Podgorica with a friendly match against Serbia. The young Slovenians will be doing their best to achieve the best possible result in the competition – just as they did at last year’s #EuroVolleyU16W in Italy and Croatia, where they finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match to Russia. 

The national team prepared for #EuroVolleyU17W at their usual training base in the Gorenjska region, and head coach Samo Miklavc is satisfied with the work done: “The preparations went as planned. We had excellent working conditions in Kranjska Gora. I would like to praise all the players for their effort. I think that we have prepared very well for the upcoming competition.”

The generation of girls born in 2004 and 2005 already proved themselves with an excellent fourth place at last year’s #EuroVolleyU16W. Therefore, there are high goals for this year’s championship as well. 

“We will open the European Championship with two difficult matches against U16 vice-champions Italy and last year’s gold medal winners, Turkey but I believe that we have a really good team, that we have quality players in all positions and that we can develop a fast and dynamic game. Over the last year, our players gained important experiences and the team is in high spirits. Our basic goal is to finish among the top six to qualify for next year’s U18 FIVB World Championship, but we will do everything to play in the semi-finals again,” added Miklavc.

Slovenia will start the competition on Thursday with the match against Italy, followed by clashes with Turkey and hosts Montenegro. 

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Sources:
CEV – European Volleyball
OZS – Volleyball Federation of Slovenia