Hämeenlinna has become accustomed to success in women’s volleyball. In the 2000s, Hämeenlinna has won 10 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze medals. Gold is a clear goal even in the season that has started.
Hämeenlinna Volleyball Club’s new manager Tatu Piekkari looks at the team practicing on the field of the home hall and states that it has full potential to succeed this season as well. He bases his assessment on what he saw both in training and in the first match of the season, where Lentiskerho beat PuijoVolley 2-3 away.
– It’s a brand here that we always go for medals and stick to it, says Piekkari.
However, it won’t be easy. At the beginning of the season, the teams are still unfamiliar with each other. Reinforcements have faded and young players have been accepted into the teams. Five foreign reinforcements play in the volleyball club’s ranks this season, four of which are new to the women’s Championship League.
Hämeenlinna has acquired a general player for the Israeli national team Vitalia Marmena Ukrainian hacker Anna Shumeikoa Canadian all-around player Taylor Collomb and Austrian national team coach Victoria Deisl. Belarusian central defender Vera Klimovich was already in the ranks last season.
– It’s great that players have been brought in from abroad. It makes it possible to get to play in the SEV Cup and do well there. It’s great that people from abroad also want to come to us. Competent coaching is one big reason why people come here, says Piekkari.
He will continue as the head coach of the volleyball club Giovanni Torchio as an assistant coach Dmitry Borichev.
Our own players have also been brought into the team and player contracts have been extended from last season.
The captain believes that the league will be tough
Captain of Hämeenlinna Volleyball Club Michaela Madsen says with the experience of 200 league matches that the club’s goal is always to be in the final.
– It is pointless to speculate on the final result based on the first games and how the current season will go. At the end, we’ll see who can push, says Madsen.
Although the teams are quite unknown to each other at the beginning of the season, there are also familiar faces among the opponents whose style of play is known.
– Of course, we watch videos of the opponents, but there are a lot of new young people whose names we don’t know anything about. Verakin (Klimovich) said they could be his children. Let’s try to play our own game. As usual, the league will be at a really hard level, says Madsen.
The team was able to start preparing for this season at the beginning of August with almost the entire team, while in previous seasons some have been in the ranks of the national team and joined halfway through the training season.