An eye on the big ‘debut’
After a too long vacation, French volleyball fans finally have the chance to watch their favorite teams back on the court: ‘rendez-vous’ this weekend with ‘Open Féminin’ at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges,a location familiar with international volleyball competitions.
The championship is due to begin this Friday, on the 24th of October,with the newly promoted teams Vannes against the Istres of Jean-Pierre Staelens, respectively St-Raphaël against last season’s 2ndplace– Nantes. The last game sets Terville Florange against Venelles.
The 2nd day of ‘Open Feminin’ begins early with Le Cannet against Hainaut, followed by probably the most expected gamesof the weekend: Cannes vs SF Paris St-Cloud (from 17:00) and Béziers vs Mulhouse.
A short introduction on the upcoming season
As probably expected, this season raises the same question,whether ‘Wonder Ravva’ and RC Cannes will manage to keep crown as defending champions.Yan Fang revealed for the local press that the club’s objectives are not changing despite the numerous transfers they made.Only emblematic Victoria Ravva,Maret Grotheus, Nneka Onyejekwe, libero Deborah Ortshitt, Ilkavan de Vyver and Alexandra Lazic extended their contracts one more season with RC Cannes. Centoni, Rasic,Bokan, Partenio, Arcangeli, Yaneva, Aelbrecht and Antonijevic left the club and they were replaced by the international German setter Maren Apitz, the receivers Yukiko Ebata (Japan), Sanja Bursac (Serbia) and the three American international players –Julianne Faucette,Logan Tom and Carly Wopat.
Difficult mission to foresee the battle for the other places. While the surprise of last season, Nantes(2ndplace),counts on keeping the same group, Le Cannet, Beziers and Mulhouse were busy all summer transferring new players. Le Cannet counts on a young team roster and surely on a great defense lead by the experienced libero, Nicole Davis. Béziers surely boosted up offensive line transferring Mari Aase Hole, one of the best scorers of LAF the previous season. Magali is looking forward to leading Mulhouse on the podium again, counting on the comeback of receiver Tanja Bokan, MVP of 2012-2013 season.
Another team to follow this season is Venelles; they might have lost their coach (left to RC Cannes), replaced in the last moment by Félix André, but they transferred experienced players: French international setter, Mallory Steux, the Algerian captain, Lydia Oulmou, Sona Mikyskova, one of the best scorers last season, Katerina Kociova and Sara Hutinski.
Keep an eye on the upcoming season and your favourite superplayers!
Photo: http://www.lnv.fr
Click Here: Cheap France Rugby Jersey