The volleyball players of SC "Prometey" will have almost no time to rest after their last match in the Champions League. Already on January 20, they will return to performances in the Middle European League (MEVZA), where on this day they will play against the Croatian club "Marina Kaštela". The game will take place on the court of the opponents at 18:30. Broadcast - on YouTube-channel DIVISPORT VOLLEYBALL.
Middle European League
Middle European League (MEVZA) — is an annual volleyball tournament among the teams of member countries of the Middle European Volleyball Zonal Association (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Israel). However, in different years, representatives of other zonal associations were also invited to participate in the competition.
This season, Prometey also got the opportunity to try their hand at the Middle European League. We would like to remind you that Ukraine belongs to the Eastern European Zonal Association (EEVZA).
Composition of participants and rules of the tournament
The opponents of Ivan Petkov's team were the Austrian "Linz-Steg", the Slovenian teams "Calcit" (Kamnik) and "Branik" (Maribor), the Hungarian "Bekeshčaba", the Croatian "Mladost" (Zagreb) and "Marina Kaštela".
Competitions are held according to a circle system, where each of the teams will play one match against other participants of the tournament. Based on the results of the six played rounds, the four best teams will advance to the semi-finals. The matches of this stage of the competition will be held on March 7 and 10. The super final will be held on March 18-19.
Tournament position
Our closest opponents have played two more games in the MEVZA League than the "red and whites". Despite this, Ukrainians are still ahead of those at the tournament table. After all, the Croatians suffered all three failures and have a disappointing difference between won and lost sets (0-9).
For their part, Ivan Petkov's players played only one away match against the Hungarian "Bekeschaba", which ended in favor of the rivals - 3-0 (25:17, 28:26, 25:15).
"Marina Kaštela" is the vice-champion of Croatia
"Marina Kaštela" is one of the top teams in their country. In particular, in the last season, they took second place in the regular championship of Croatia and qualified for the "final four".
In the semifinals, Vukovar was defeated by the same score of 3-0 but then lost the decisive matches for the trophy to the favorite and the current champion of the competition, the Mladost club (1-3, 0-3), which is also the opponent of the "red-whites" in MEVZA championship.
"Marina" is headed by Bosnian coach Goran Zahura. In general, the specialist has been working in the structure of the club since 2015 as an assistant coach. Later, in the 2022/23 season, he was entrusted with the position of head coach.
The lion's share of the composition of this team is formed by Croatian volleyball players. The team's best scorers in the Middle European League are currently local players — outside hitter Stella Vukasovich (26 points) and middle blocker Lara Dezhulovich (19).
Game broadcast:
