#CLVolleyW Pool Previews – Volleyball giants to battle it out in Group A

After completion of the early rounds, the group stage of the CEV ZEREN Group Champions League Volley 2026 | Women will get underway next week with 20 teams due to compete across five pools for a coveted spot in the knock-out phase. A large share of the world’s top players will be stepping onto the court to deliver an unmissable show for fans from across the globe. Pool A features all-time record winners VakifBank ISTANBUL, last year’s silver medal winners Savino Del Bene SCANDICCI, Romania’s standout CS Volei Alba BLAJ and France’s Volero LE CANNET – a truly star-studded line-up. 

VakifBank ISTANBUL (TUR) 

The all-time record winners of the world’s most prestigious club competition return after disappointingly finishing fourth last season when the Final Four was held in Türkiye’s megalopolis. However, none can compete with their resume – six Champions League titles, most recently emerging victorious in 2023 in Turin. With Giovanni Guidetti at the helm of the team for almost two decades now without any break, VakifBank have made consistency their trademark – since 2011, they have reached the gold medal match as many as nine times, another record. Moreover, since the competition was introduced in 2000/2001, they have always featured among Europe’s top sides – with only two exceptions (2003/2004 and 2007/2008). Their truly unique resume also includes the highest number of matches and wins in the group stage – 144 and 111, respectively. 

VakifBank return to the #CLVolleyW with renewed ambition, after their fourth place finish in 2025. Since earlier this year, their roster has undergone major changes – starting with the arrival from city rivals Eczacibasi of Serbia’s Tijana Bošković, a two-time World champion with her national team (2018, 2022) and two-time top scorer of the Champions League (2017 and 2024). The Serbian opposite is not the only star player to have joined the ranks of VakifBank for this campaign. Héléna Cazaute of France and Gabriela Orvosova of Czechia moved from the Italian league to Istanbul after making a name for themselves on the European stage with their former teams. Cazaute won the Challenge Cup in 2023 with Reale Mutua Fenera CHIERI ’76 and finished second (2024) and third (2025) with Numia Vero Volley MILANO in the #CLVolleyW – while Orvosova sensationally won the last edition of the Challenge Cup with ROMA Volley. Local stars and fan favourites Cansu Özbay, Derya Cebecioglu and Zehra Günes claimed silver with Türkiye at the 2025 World Championship.

In this year’s group phase, VakifBank will be trying to make amends for their 0-3 loss at the hands of Savino Del Bene SCANDICCI in last season’s semi-final. 

Savino Del Bene SCANDICCI (ITA) 

The Italians reached the #CLVolleyW final for the first time last season, when they lost to their domestic rivals A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO. Apart from that setback, they truly had a dream season, reaching the gold medal match without conceding a single set along the way in as many as nine matches – an unprecedented feat in the competition. This was the first time they made it this far in the #CLVolleyW after reaching the quarterfinals in 2019, 2021, and 2024. With VakifBank drawn in their pool, SCANDICCI will be facing a tough test to extend their impeccable run in the group stage encompassing as many as 12 consecutive matches won, with only two sets lost in the process. 

Their roster includes Ekaterina Antropova, an Olympic, VNL and World champion with Team Italy and their best scorer in the #CLVolleyW for the past two seasons, as well as Serbia’s evergreen Maja Ognjenovic – whose debut in the competition dates to the 2002/2003 edition when she was playing for her country’s home side Crvena Zvezda BEOGRAD. Maja’s endless resume has only one major ‘loophole’: she is yet to win the CEV Champions League, with three silver medals to her name with three different clubs – VakifBank in 2022, Eczacibasi a year later and SCANDICCI earlier this season. If VakifBank’s mentor Giovanni Guidetti boasts the record of titles (six) and finals (nine) among coaches, Marco Gaspari’s resume is impressive as well – he was at the helm of the runners-up in 2024 (MILANO) and in 2025 (SCANDICCI).  

CS Volei Alba BLAJ (ROU) 

Romania’s multiple national champions are making their seventh appearance in the group stage of the competition. They finished second in 2018 when they hosted the Final Four in Bucharest and lost the gold medal match in straight sets to VakifBank. 

BLAJ has been a recurrent name in the final stages of other European Cups as well, but they are yet to secure their first continental trophy. Actually, if we were to count the last seven completed seasons – except for the 2019/2020 campaign cut short by the outbreak of the pandemic – the Romanian club reached the final of a European Cup as many as five times. Beside their #CLVolleyW silver medal in 2018, they finished second in the CEV Cup (2019, 2023, and 2025) as well as in the Challenge Cup (2021). 

They return to the Champions League stage after a year of absence – last season they featured prominently in the CEV Cup, reaching the final where they lost to Italy’s Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA. Their coach Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez has been at the helm of the team since January 2025 and guides a truly international roster with players from Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, and Serbia. As they return to compete at the highest level, BLAJ will be trying to improve on their record (two wins and four losses) from their last participation in the #CLVolleyW group stage in 2023/2024. 

Volero LE CANNET (FRA) 

The team from the French Riviera secured their progression to the #CLVolleyW group stage after recording 3-1 and 3-0 wins in their Round 3 fixtures with Janta Volej KISELA VODA of North Macedonia. This campaign will coincide with the fifth appearance in the pool stage after their debut in 2015/2016 as Rocheville LE CANNET. Their best result to date is progressing to the Playoffs in 2022/2023, when they lost a Golden Set to Poland’s Developres RZESZÓW. Moreover, they also featured in the semis of the Challenge Cup in 2019 where they conceded defeat to eventual competition winners Saugella MONZA of Italy. 

Their head coach Marco Fenoglio has a wealth of experience in international Volleyball and is a former winner of the #CLVolleyW with Volley BERGAMO of Italy (in 2007). Fenoglio moved to Le Cannet earlier this year – last season he helped Fenerbahçe Medicana ISTANBUL claim the Turkish Cup but he was sacked after losing the first match of the Playoff semis with city rivals Galatasaray. Fenoglio, assisted by former Danish Volleyball star Kristian Knudsen, leads another truly multi-national roster with players from Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia, and Türkiye. 

With three outstanding rivals in the pool, they will have to work hard to improve their current #CLVolleyW record, which stands at eight wins and 12 losses this far, including three wins and three losses from their last participation in 2023/2024.