In focus: #CLVolleyW Pool C

Pool C stands out from the general picture with the presence of the current champion - VakifBank ISTANBUL. Recently, the Turkish Vakifbank, Italian Igor Gorgonzola Novara and German SC Potsdam recognised the last member of their group - Crvena Zvezda from Serbia.

In the end of the last CEV Champions League season VakifBank ISTANBUL took the victory against its rival A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO, and won the competition in four sets at Arena Stožice in Ljubljana. In total, the Turkish won the trophy 5 times in the new history of the Champions League. No one else has been able to do this yet.

Moreover, the team lead by Giovanni Guidetti won all possible competitions, where they were participating last season: they became World and Turkey champions. During the summer pause they got some new players and now they are ready to fight again. 

VakifBank announced that they signed the contract with one of the most important stars of the volleyball - opposite 23-years old Paola Egonu. She used to play all the time in Italian teams and also in the national team of Italy. At the Olympics Games in Tokyo she was one of the national flag-bearers and during the World Championship she helped her team to get the bronze.

During her club carrier she already won all possible titles, for example 2 times Champions League with Igor Novara and Imoco Conegliano, besides of the golden medals inside the country. She also has countless amount of individual awards such as Nation League and Champions League MVP. Also the 23-year-old player was selected as the most valuable player in the Italian Cup and the Italian League last season. In VakifBank she’ll wear number 8 jersey. 

Last season Novara also played in Pool C and finished there on the second place what didn’t help to qualify to quarterfinals. To say that Novara has been greatly updated for the new season is to say nothing. 8 newcomers in Stefano Lavarini's team - this is more than half of it. And also they are the part of a very difficult group C in the Champions League.

Fisrt of all, who stayed from the previous season: Chirichella, Bosetti, Bonifacio, Battistoni, Fersino and Karakurt. Those players confirmed their contract for the next season in Novara. The team made updates in every department. The final addition effectively closes the club's roster: the American star the outside-spiker McKenzie Adams, bringing her 192 cm of class and power to Stefano Lavarini's team. Last two seasons she spent in Conegliano, with which in a few months she won the Supercoppa, the Italian Cup, the Scudetto and the Champions League. During the last season, however, she played in the ranks of the Turkish club Eczacibasi Istanbul.

For the German team SC Potsdam this season will be the debut in the Champions League. They qualified for the tournament by finishing second in the Bundesliga.

The team has already won the German Super Cup this season. The German team is quite young in composition, the oldest player is 28-year-old setter Megan Viggars. The head coach of the team is Spanish Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez, he is working in the team since 2018.

Crvena Zvezda is the most successful team in Serbian volleyball in women's category. They made it to the fourth round of the Champions League through a qualifier, defeating the Slovenian Calcit twice. Thus, the team returned to the Champions League after 9 years! They have never won the Champions League in their history, but they've been runners-up of the CEV Cup in 10 and took bronze medals in 2008.

The team has well-balanced roster with no pronounced leader. Everyone is able to show productive game in attacking and scoring, like the captain and outside spiker Ana Zivojinovic, middle-blockers Bozica Markovic and Isidora Rodic, opposite Tara Taubner or outside spiker Jelena Stojic.