Slovenia
Slovenia women’s Volleyball team led by Edi Dolinšek played its first official match in October 1992 as part of the qualifiers for the 1993 CEV European Championship hosted by the Czech Republic. Their first opponent was Luxembourg and the match ended in favour of Slovenia, which then tried several times to secure themselves a spot among the European elite, but without success.
After many years of waiting, Slovenia finally did it. In 2015, they eliminated France in the final round of qualifications and secured a historic maiden European Championship appearance. Slovenia finished 16th in the Netherlands and Belgium and still wait for their first win in the competition.
Young talents such as Eva Mori, Iza Mlakar, Sara Najdič, Lana Ščuka, and Saša Planinšec who are now the core of Slovenia’s line-up led by Alessandro Chiappini, debuted at the championship in 2015 and will represent their country for the second time while competing among the best European teams. After the second place claimed at the 2017 FIVB U23 World Championship, which is by far the biggest achievement for any women’s team sport in Slovenia, it is now time for this generation to achieve another milestone.
Eva Mori“It will be nice to play at the European Championship again after four years. For most of the girls in our young team, this will be a debut and we are all very excited especially since we will open the tournament with a match against Poland, so we are hoping for a packed arena in Lodz and a crazy atmosphere. Our goal is to win at least two matches in our pool and qualify for the second phase of the competition. We have a good team and we believe in ourselves.”
Captain of Slovenia
