Charleroi Volley (BEL) arriving on Monday to the snowy city of Kuusamo

Photo Charleroi Volley.

 

Next Wednesday there’ll be international volleyball played at Kuusamo Sports Hall as Pölkky Kuusamo faces the Belgian Charleroi Volley in a two-part Challenge Cup match.

 

Charleroi Volley, arriving at Kuusamo on Monday, has had a rocky start in the Belgian league, winning three out of eight matches positioning them at ninth place in the twelve-team league. The top four, however, is only a couple of wins away for them.

 

Charleroi’s squad features, alongside six Belgian players, six players from abroad, including setter Eveliina Koljonen, who should already be familiar to the home crowd. Koljonen has gotten a nice amount of responsibility this season and can likely be spotted on the field in Kuusamo. Bulgarian Boyana Andreeva is playing as a opposite for the team, having a background from i.a. the Italian, Turkish and Czech leagues. Amongst other middle blockers is i.a. Annelien Alons from the Netherlands, whose strengths include, in particular, blocking. The Argentinian outside spiker Marcia Scacchi, and Nikolina Jelic, a member of the Croatian World Championship group from 2014, bring experience to the lineup with them.

 

Charleroi Volley was known earlier as Dauphines Charleroi on the European volleyball fields. Previous season, the club played in the Challenge Cup reaching top 16 teams, finally getting eliminated from the competition by the Spanish Logrono. Apart from this, the club has experience from a nearly annual participation in European games all the way from 1990s.

 

If the weather isn’t cold enough to slow down the Belgian team, we hope the vocal home crowd in Kuusamo shall cut it!

 

Tickets á 15€

(Mestaruusliiga Season Passes aren’t accepted to the European games).

 

Players:

# NAME POSITION HEIGHT WEIGHT BIRTH YEAR SPIKE REACH BLOCK REACH NATIONALITY  

1 JURCIKOVA Michaela Middle-blocker 185 80 1991 289 274 CZE  

3 KOLJONEN Eveliina Setter 172 65 1989 285 275 FIN  

4 HANNAERT Marine Libero  176 59 1996 280 26 BEL  

5 DESMEDT Cathy Libero  163 67 1985 260 255 BEL  

7 ANDREEVA Boyana Opposite 188 78 1991 296 291 BUL  

8 JELIC Nikolina Outside-spiker 190 78 1991 292 290 CRO  

10 ALONS Johanna Willemina Middle-blocker 193 91 1988 300 293 NED  

11 HUMBLET Charline Middle-blocker 180 65 2000 287 279 BEL  

12 THEVENIN Juliette Outside-spiker 182 77 1992 282 278 BEL  

15 EVRARD Flore Setter  180 76 1997 277 276 BEL  

16 SCACCHI Marcia Monica Outside-spiker 183 76 1982 290 276 ARG  

18 HANON Julie Opposite 180 74 1996 294 289 BEL