Six teams to play for two tickets to Women’s U23 World Championship

Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, July 26, 2016 – The city of Vrnjačka Banja is ready to host the European qualification tournament for the 2017 edition of the FIVB U23 Women’s Volleyball World Championship. Six teams will vie for the two tickets at stake to make it to next year’s global event in Slovenia, and their respective coaches single out Turkey, Serbia and Italy as the sides that are most likely to achieve that feat. It is the first time in history that such a qualifier is organised to determine Europe’s representative at the U23 World Championship since in 2013 and 2015 the European Ranking for the U19 age-group was used to compose the European contingent. Bulgaria coach Nikolay Ivanov said his team has travelled to Vrnjačka Banja to be at their best: “I think we had a very good preparation phase. We have been working together for more than two months, but we are not among the favourites. I hope we can cause some surprises. Our group is very good and in my opinion Serbia, Turkey and Italy are the favourites of this tournament.” Croatia coach Miroslav Aksentijević is determined to make the best out of this opportunity: “We have a very young team, with most girls born in 1998 and 1999 and I have been working with …

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