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Germany’s Bundesliga Will Begin 2018-2019 Season 2 Weeks After Worlds

Germany’s top league, the Bundesliga, has announced its schedules for the  men’s and women’s 2018-2019 campaigns. The men’s league will kick off on October 13th, with the regular seasons running until March 23rd, while the women begin at the end of October, the 31st, and also play until March 23rd. That means approximately the same starting weekend as last season for the men, but the women will start two weeks later, which gives internationals from both sets of players about two weeks’ rest from the end of the FIVB World Championships which run at the end of this summer.

Since its release, the schedule has already been altered, especially to accommodate Champions League participation, with last year’s German vice-champions Stuttgart beginning their Bundesliga season on November 11th – 10 days later than most of their competitors.

The first mega-matchup on the men’s side between defending runners-up Friedrichshafen and defending champions Berlin Recycling Volleys will take place on November 15th at the ZF Arena in Friedrichshafen, which should be filled beyond its listed capacity of 3,822 spectators based on the teams’ recent rivalries. Friedrichshafen won both regular-season matchups by scores of 3-1 last season, and dominated the regular season table, but Berlin won the teams’ best-of-5 series in the playoff finals 3 matches to 2 to take the title home.

That made 3-straight German Championships for BR Volleys, and 6 in the last 7 seasons.

BR Volleys has loaded-up for the new season, especially by the addition of big-name Americans like Jeff Jendryk, Dustin Watten, and Kyle Russell, the announcement in the last week that Adam White would return to the side, the addition of German National Team libero Egor Bogachev, and the return of players like Ben Patch.

VfB’s additions have been less flashy; they added Michal Petras from Slovakia and a new s tarting setter Jakub Janouch, each on two-year contracts, plus the addition of Martin Kruger, but the team doesn’t seem to have replaced the talent it lost this off-season.

In the women’s league, a similar situation happened last season as the men’s, where Stuttgart topped the regular season over Dresdner, but it was SSC Palmberg Schwerin who swooped in and won the final in a 3-0 sweep over Stuttgart after doing the same to Dresden in the semi-final (2-0). Schwerin didn’t drop a single match on its way to the playoff championship.

Schwerin will first see Dresden on October 1st, and then will face Stuttgart on December 26th, the day after Christmas.

Volleyball’s resident badboy Earvin Ngapeth has released a 2nd rap song entitled “Maniere” which translates roughly to “The Way,” in which he sings about his career and becoming one of the world’s top volleyball players.

The 27-year old Frenchman, who recently signed an extension to remain in Modena, Italy until 2020, was the MVP of the 2015 and 2017 FIVB World Leagues and the best player in Italy’s Serie A1 in 2016.

Based on his hair style in the video, it appears as though it was filmed last summer Earvin was rocking the  blonde during the European Championships last summer.

While known as one of the most electric and creative volleyball players in the world, Ngapeth has also had his fair-share of legal issues. He recently received 1 year of probation for a 2015 hit-and-run; earlier this year, he was cleared of assault charges also from 2015.

After his latest charges, Ngapeth said that he was “not proud to see his name in the newspapers for the wrong reasons.”

“I was punished in the case where I deserved to be and it is up to me to make sure that it does not happen again, that we speak only of volleyball when we mention my name.”

See Earvin’s first video, called “Ma vie n’a aucun prix,” or “My life has  no price,” from 2016:

The French National Team’s next formal tournament is the 2018 Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner that runs from August 24th-26th in Krakow, Poland. There, they’ll face Poland, Russia, and Canada in a tuneup for the World Championships.

Ever wonder what it’s like to film those promo videos that light up scoreboards and Twitter accounts around the country during college volleyball season? It’s exactly as much fun as you might think it would be.

Western Kentucky junior Emma Kowalkowski stepped behind the camera last week to show you what it’s like to shoot, complete with pyrotechnics, high speed golf cart chases, stunts, and even time spent in the kitchen – because if you wanna eat, you gotta cook.

Western Kentucky finished the 2017 season with a 31-4 record, including a 4th-straight Conference USA tournament title. They advanced to the NCAA national championship tournament where they swept Notre Dame in the opening round before losing 3-2 to Kentucky in the 2nd round.

Kentucky will be their first opponent of 2018, just like they were last  season, albeit in an exhibition match, on August 16th. Then the Hilltoppers head to the College of Charleston Tournament, where they play Alabama, College of Charleston, and Missouri State.

The team graduated their leading scorer, Alyssa Cavanaugh (489 kills), and starting setter, Jessica Lucas, at the end of last season. Cavanaugh was the  2017 Conference USA Female Athlete of the Year and an AVCA Third-Team All-American, and Lucas was an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American. They’ll rely now on middle hitter Rachel Anderson, who was 2nd behind Cavanaugh with 420 kills last season, and led the team with a .413 hitting percentage.

Florida freshman Thayer Hall has been voted as the USA Today’s ALL-USA female high school athlete of the year after receiving more than 51% of the votes in an 8-player poll. Hall finished her senior season last fall at Dorman High in Roebuck, South Carolina before enrolling early for the spring semester.

The USA Today High School Sports editorial staff chose 8 female athletes of the year in the 8 sports that the  paper covers nationally, and then put the players to a vote for the national award. Hall received 51.03% of the fan vote, or 80,321 votes out of 157,406, to win the honor.

While 51% in an a-player race sounds like it might be an overwhelming total in an 8-player race, but  voting was dominated by just two athletes: Hall and Montana Fouts, a softball player from East Carter High School in Kentucky combined to pull 154,450 out of the 157,406 votes cast, or 98.12%.

Hall is a 6’3″ outside hitter who was named the 2017-2018 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year, the MaxPreps National Female Athlete of the Year, and PrepVolleyball’s top player in the class of 2018. She’s already been a member of 3 USA Volleyball international teams: at the 2017 FIVB U20 World  Cup, the 2017 U20 Pan American Cup (where she was named MVP), and the 2016 NORCECA Championships.

While Florida hasn’t formally announced their starting lineup yet, the Gators did graduate their top two outside hitters, Carly Snyder and Shainah Joseph, after last season. Of the remaining players, Paige Hammons is the favorite to start (she played in 115 of the Gators’ 116 sets last season as a freshman, scoring 151 points, but hit just .107), with the other spot being a battle between redshirt sophomore Mia Sokolowski (who had 65 kills in 59 sets last season, but hit just .039) and Hall. Hall is expected to grab that second starting position, especially after arriving on campus a semester early and having time to grow into the Florida system.

Hall as a senior had 638 kills in 108 sets played (5.90/set) while hitting .401 (with a 51.3% kills percentage). As a 6-rotation player, she also had 204 aces in her four year high school career, 144 blocks, and 1,363 digs. She finished her high school career with 2,291 kills.

Fouts, who was the youngest-ever player to commit to Alabama, is a pitcher who set a Kentucky state record as a freshman, and more as a sophomore with 14 no hitters and 9 perfect games. As a junior, she averaged 2.10 strikeouts-per-inning (barring dropped 3rd strikes, the most possible is 3 if she were to strike out every batter), and as a senior had an unnbelievable .09 ERA. She spent 7 years on East Carter’s varsity roster, beginning in 6th grade, and finished with a total ERA of .32 in her career. She also had a .566 batting average as a senior, with 12 home runs.

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Florida has been picked to finish 2nd in the league in the SEC pre-season coaches’ poll.

Italian beach volleyball player Matteo Martino failed an in-competition doping test on July 8th, 2018, the Italian anti-doping authority NADO Italia announced on Thursday. He has been given a provisional suspension while undergoing sanctioning proceedings.

The test came at the Milan stop of the Italian Beach tour in the 3rd round, where Martino and partner Ingrosso Paolo eventually advanced to and lost the championship match. Martino is currently Italy’s 17th-ranked beach volleyball player domestically. That result was Martino’s best of the season so far, and the last tournament he played on the tour – though last Sunday he won a 3 + 3 Trofeo Mobili Marchelli tournament.

The 31-year old Martino has not played on the FIVB or CEV international tours since 2015, and his best finish was a 9th-place result at the 2011 World Championships in Rome. At the time, he was playing with Paolo Nicolai, who  has gone on to become one of the country’s most successful beach players, including 5 World Tour wins in his career.

According to NADO Italia, he tested positive for 4 banned substances:  Epitrenbolone, Norandrosterone, Noretoocolanolone and the presence of Testosterone. All of these are classified as Anabolic Andronenic Steroids by the World Anti-Doping Code, meaning that they are prohibited both in-and-out of competition, and carry a maximum first-offense suspension of 4 years.

He was the 2nd Italian volleyball player to have an announced failed test in a week, after indoor player Federico Nicolini.

19-year old Canadian opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans has returned to training with the Canadian National Team after undergoing surgery on his left leg.

During a match in Poland’s PlusLiga with Onico Warszawa in March in what was his first professional season, Vernon-Evans was diagnosed with a left leg injury. Later testing showed that he had suffered a stress fracture to his tibia. At the time, the team doctor said that the recovery time would be 4-6 months. His return puts him on the very short edge of that time frame, after March 23rd surgery.

In an interview this week with the CBC, Vernon-Evans said that he felt “helpless” and overworked, resulting in the injury.

“When I got to Poland [earlier this year] there wasn’t much rest time and I overworked the shin,” says Vernon-Evans.”I don’t have many regrets, other than I should have been more in tune with my body. I wouldn’t have wanted to stop playing in the Final Six, but I should have identified [the injury] before getting to the point of having to stop playing. I need to be up front about any pain, no matter how severe it is.”

Vernon-Evans first made international headlines in 2017 when, even as an 18-year old, he marked one of the highest spike heights ever recorded, touching at at 384cm (12’9″), which is 1.3 meters (4’7″) above the height of the net.

While his first summer with Canada’s National Team in 2017 had personal ups-and-downs, he became a crucial dynamic presence for their offense that led them to a historic bronze medal at the World League. Without him in this year’s Nations League, Canada finished 7th with an 8-7 record and missed out on the Final 6.

It turns out, that during a stop of last year’s World League, in Belgium, he had an X-ray taken on the shin which showed a pre-stress fracture, indicated by a weakening of the bone. He switched shoes, which relieved the pain temporarily, until it returned in February.

He’s now expected to return in time to play at this summer’s World Championships, which for Canada begin on September 12th in Ruse, Bulgaria. Canada will open that tournament against the Netherlands and continue to play Egypt, China, Brazil, and France in the preliminary rounds. The top 4 advance to the next round of competition.

He is still uncertain for the three-day Hubert Jerzy Wagner Memorial in Poland in August – a major warmup tournament for the World Championships, saying that Worlds are his focus.

The silver lining is that Vernon-Evans says that the lighter workouts during his rehab revealed his unhealthy eating habits, because of a noticeable change in his appearance. He now says he’s making nutrition a top priority.

In his first professional season, Vernon-Evans scored 72 points in 17 matches played.

In a huge blow to the hopes of one of the two host nations for this summer’s World Championships, Bulgarian setter Georgi Bratoev has been ruled out of the tournament after undergoing surgery for a broken foot.

The injury, originally suffered during week 3 of the Nations League, has brought a roller-coaster of emotions to Bratoev’s teammates. At first, it appeared severe, but then the team was brought initial relief when he was on the next week’s roster anyway. After the foot continued to cause him pain, he underwent an MRI which revealed the break, but still was anticipated to return for the World Championships, which begin on September 9th – almost 2 months after his surgery.

The latest turn has him out of the tournament after evaluation by a French doctor.

The 30-year old Bratoev has spent more than a decade with the Bulgarian team, including a bronze medal won at the 2009 European Championships. 25-year old Georgi Seganov took over for Bratoev at the Nations League, without much obvious drop-off in performance. Both players are very tall for the position (Bratoev is 6’8″, Seganov is 6’6″), and Seganov wound up with a higher running-sets-per-set average at the Nations League than did Bratoev.

The team was 2-3 before Bratoev’s injury and 3-4 after, in spite of the tougher matches, including a finale win over Brazil, coming in the back half of their tournament.

The team left on Monday for a high-altitude training camp in Belmeken, where they will stay until August 11th.

“The aim of this camp is to get in good physical condition so that players can recover better after World Championship matches,” said Konstantin Plamen.

He lamented the challenges that the team is having with injuries suffered in the Nations League ahead of the July 30th deadline to cut his roster to 22 players, saying that he’s having to bring extra players at every position save for libero because of some uncertainty around the health of his players.

As a result, he has called, for example, Miroslav Gradinarov, who can play as a reserve at two positions.

Bulgaria, who play their first-round pool at home in Varna, will host Cuba, Finland, Iran, Poland, and Puerto Rico in what turned out to be a much more challenging pool than their co-hosts Italy had to face. They will need to finish only in the top 4 in that pool, however, to advance to the 2nd round of competition.

They will play the opening match of the whole tournament, on September 9th, against Finland.

French side VBC Chamalieres, who finished last in the French Pro Volley A league last season, has been spared from relegation after a season plagued by financial issues and just a 4-18 win-loss record. the  LVN has decided to expand France’s top women’s league from 12 teams to 14 next season, and the administrative relegation of Evreux, the team was granted a second season in the top tier. With financial limitations, they’ve been cleared to trawl the transfer market, with financial limitations, to sign replacements for 6 departures.

Among the additions are former Oregon State University player Amanda Brown and Canadian National Teamer Marie-Alex Belanger.

Belanger is the prize of the class – she was named the 2017-2018 Canadian U Sports Female Athlete of the Year as Canada’s top collegiate athlete after her senior season at the University of Montreal. Already 25-years old, older than most athletes embarking on their first seasons of professional volleyball, Belanger is a 186cm (6’1″) opposite who is ascribed to play outside hitter with Chamalieres.

She had 9 points and led Canada with 6 digs in the 5-set championship match of the NORCECA qualifier for the FIVB Challenger Cup earlier this year, which was a 3-2 Canadian loss to the Puerto Ricans. She’ll play with Canada at this summer’s World Championships, which run from September 29th through October 20th, and cuts into the French League season.

Last season, she led all of Canadian collegiate volleyball with 3.98 kills/set while hitting .302 at the opposite position good for 15th in the nation among all positions, and 2nd among non-middles.

The 25-year old Brown, who has played in Denmark, Germany, and Greece to this point of her career, is a 6’1″ middle blocker.

Chamalieres New Additions:

  • Amanda Brown – 6’1″ middle blocker, United States (25-years old)
  • Marie-Alex Belanger – 6’1″ outside hitter, Canada (25-years old)
  • Diana Arrechea – 5’11” outside hitter, Columbia (23-years old) – sometimes-member of Colombia’s National Team, she has played professionally in Italy with Forli, and Potsdam in Germany’s Bundesliga. She’s an explosive leaper, in spite of being undersized for a hitter.
  • Yolande Amana Guigolo – 6’0 setter, Cameroon (20-years old) – A member of Cameroon’s National Team at both the 2016 Olympic Games and scheduled for the upcoming World Championships, this is Guigolo’s first professional deal outside of her home country of Cameroon (she’s played until now with Bafia Volleyball. She’s another player who will be committed through October with the World Championships before joining the team.
  • Marjorie Correa – 6’1″ middle blocker, Brazil (26-years old) – A former selection of Brazil’s U18 and U20 national teams, will also play her first professional season outside of her home country. She was previously signed with Sesi in the Brazilian Superliga.

2018 Sitting Volleyball World Championships

The men from Iran won their record-breaking 7th sitting volleyball World Championships on Sunday in 12 editions of the tournament, beating their arch-rivals from Bosnia & Herzogovina, the world’s #2s, in straight sets 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-20).

On the other end of the spectrum are the Russian women, who are ranked #7 in the world, but roared their way to a first-ever sitting World Championship over the United States, who are the defending Paralympic Champions.

Match statistics were not available for any of the games of the tournament.

Men’s Tournament

Led by Morteza Mehrzadselakjani, the tallest Paralympian ever at 8’1″ (2.46m), world #1 Iran dominated world #2 Bosnia & Herzogovina in the final match. In spite of being a dominant force in the final, Mehrzadselakjani wasn’t chosen for the tournament’s dream team. The Iranian men were dominant throughout the tournament, losing only two sets, and no matches, in total, including a 3-1 win over world #3 Egypt and a 3-0 sweep in the semifinals over world #5 Ukraine.

Ukraine then swept Brazil, another top 5 team in the world, in the bronze medal match. The final 3-0 score in that match belies its competitiveness: each set was won by the minimum 2 points, with two of the three going to extra points.

Gold Medal Match Highlights

World ParaVolley has a new world champion! In a replay of the Gold Medal match from the 2016 Paralympics tonight, Iran, the 2016 Gold Medallists took on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Silver Medalists from 2016 and the reigning 2014 World Champions. Tonight it was Iran's turn to be crowned as World Champions as they defeated their Paralympic rivals in a convincing fashion. Playing in front of a boisterous full-house crowd, Iran took the match in 3 sets by scores of 25-18, 25-13, 25-20 to claim the gold. As finalists at the 2018 Sitting Volleyball World Championships, both of these teams qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

Posted by World ParaVolley on Sunday, July 22, 2018

Men’s Dream Team

  • Best Server – Wescley Conceicao De Oliveira (BRA 11)
  • Best Receiver – Eric Duda (USA 5)
  • Best Setter – Evgenii Volosnikov (RUS 8)
  • Best Spiker – Hesam Abdelmaksod (EGY 1)
  • Best Blocker – Nizam Cancar (BIH 7)
  • Best Libero – Ramezan Salehihajikolaie (IRI 11)
  • Most complete player – Denys Bytschenko (UKR 5)

Men’s Final Ranking

1 – Iran 🇮🇷
2 –  Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦
3 – Brazil 🇧🇷
4 – Ukraine 🇺🇦
5 – Russia 🇷🇺
6 – Egypt 🇪🇬
7 – China 🇨🇳
8 – USA 🇺🇸
9 – Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
10 – Germany 🇩🇪
11 – Netherlands 🇳🇱
12 – Poland 🇵🇱
13 – Croatia 🇭🇷
14 – Iraq 🇮🇶
15 – Japan 🇯🇵
16 – Rwanda 🇷🇼

Women’s Tournament

In a final full of stunning rallies, the Russian women pulled a stunning upset over the American women: a team that was absolutely dominant in Rio en route to Paralympic gold.

The Americans swept the Russians in straight-sets in pool play, and looked like they might be headed that way in the final as well after cruising to a 25-18 first set win.

But a tenacious Russian team fought back, winning the next three sets, each in extra points, to take a 3-1 victory (18-25, 27-25, 26-24, 26-24).

That loss to the U.S. was Russia’s only of the tournament – they only dropped two sets otherwise. That includes sweeping world #2 China 3-0 in the semi-final.

China would go on to defeat Italy by that same 3-0 score (25-10, 25-19, 25-12) in a dominating bronze medal match.

Gold Medal Match Highlights

What a 🥇 final! So many amazing highlights it was hard to pack them in so this highlights reel gets extra special treatment. Enjoy this longer version as Russian Women's National Sitting Volleyball Team and USA Women’s National Sitting Volleyball Team put on a show to remember! 👏🙌#worldsittingvolley

Posted by World ParaVolley on Saturday, July 21, 2018

Women’s Final Ranking

1 – Russia 🇷🇺
2 – USA 🇺🇸
3 – China 🇨🇳
4 – Italy 🇮🇹
5 – Brazil 🇧🇷
6 – Ukraine 🇺🇦
7 – Canada 🇨🇦
8 – Netherlands 🇳🇱
9 – Iran 🇮🇷
10 – Japan 🇯🇵
11 – Rwanda 🇷🇼
12 – Finland 🇫🇮
13 – Slovenia 🇸🇮
14 – Hungary 🇭🇺
15 – Egypt 🇪🇬
16 – Croatia 🇭🇷

Dream Team

Best Server – Elizaveta Kunstman (RUS 9)
Best Receiver – Zhang Xufei (CHN 9)
Best Setter – Kaleo Okalani Kanahele (USA 14)
Best Spiker – Iuliia Mednikova (RUS 3)
Best Blocker – Kathryn Sue Holloway (USA 5)
Best Libero – Bethany Paige Zummo (USA 2)
Most Complete Player – Iuliia Mednikova (RUS 3)

21-year old outside hitter Oleh Plotnitskiy has undergone surgery on his left shoulder to repair an injury sustained while training with the Ukraine National Team earlier this summer. The surgery is expected to keep him off the court for 5 months, meaning that he will miss most of the first round of play for Monza in the Italian league.

Plotnitskiy is a 6’4″ (195cm) outside hitter who hits at 335cm (132″) and blocks at 320cm (126″). Last season, he appeared in 69 sets and 18 matches for Monza, scoring 184 points (2.67/set), including 23 aces (1.27/game). He ranked 39th in the league in points/set, and was the team’s 3rd-leading scorer.

Plotnitskiy’s injury leaves the team a little thin in an area where they need some depth. 20-year old Czech player Donovan Dzavoronok is expected to start at outside alongside captain Iacopo Botto, who will turn 31 in September, with another 30-year old Andrea Galliani, who is returning to the team after a one-year absence, also in that corps. That group is very-much a case where Monza has coupled two young players with two veteran players, for the former to benefit from the experience of the latter, but with two 30+ year-olds in a group of just 3 at the position, they’ll need Plotnitskiy to immediately begin absorbing some jumps when he returns in December.

Monza finished 10th of 14 teams in last year’s Italian Championship, and brought in opposite Paul Buchegger, who was the 4th-best scorer in the whole league, to bring upgraded firepower to their offense next season. The team ranked just 11th in the league with 11.67 kills/set last season.

As for the National Team, Ukraine’s men are ranked just 34th in the world and are not qualified for this summer’s World Championship tournament. They finished 8th in the CEV Golden European League, with Plotnitskiy playing, where he ranked 4th in total points scored in the tournament in spite of the team not advancing to the final rounds. That included a 22-point outburst in an upset win over Turkey.

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