From July 21 to 23, the youth women's national team of Ukraine will play in the qualification for the European Championship 2024 in the age category under 22 years. Our athletes got into Group A, the matches of which will be held in the Portuguese city of Paredes. In addition to the hosts, their opponents in the qualification will be representatives of Denmark and Ireland.
Group A: Ukraine, Portugal, Denmark, Ireland.
The winners of the groups (there are four of them in total) and the three best-ranked teams among the second places will go to the continental championship in Italy.
According to Andrii Romanovych, the head coach of the blue and yellow team, on the one hand, the opponents are not the giants of European volleyball, but on the other hand, there are now enough surprise teams, especially at a young age.
- Our first task is to get the most out of each player and the national team in general. We have to prepare well, play, teach someone, and in the end show everything we are capable of, - said Andrii Vasylovych.
It should be noted that Ukrainians started preparing for the qualification in mid-June on the base of the "Soniachna Dolyna" sports complex (Boiany village, Chernivtsi region). Initially, 18 volleyball players were called to the gathering. However, 14 girls made it to the final roster and will go to Portugal:
setters: Kateryna Huseinova, Anastasiia Horbachenko;
middle blockers: Krystyna Starostenko, Anastasiia Kucher, Kseniia Ratii, Kateryna Cherkashyna;
the opposites: Polina Dziuba, Kima Zharkova;
outside hitters: Daria Kaplanska, Mariia Kaplanska, Kateryna Dzendzelovska, Andriana Pavlyk;
liberos: Kateryna Vasylieva (captian), Mariia Drapak.
Andrii Romanovych's coaching staff in the national team includes: assistant coach Volodymyr Mirchev, physical training coach Oleksii Konovalov, massage therapist Anatolii Zuiakov and scoutman Pavlo Fabritsi.
Already tomorrow, July 14, the team is expected to leave for the Slovenian city of Maribor, where they plan to hold several sparring matches against Austria.
The schedule of games of the blue-yellow team in the qualification for the Euro:
July 21
19:00 Ukraine - Denmark
July 22
17:00 Ukraine - Ireland
July 23
20:00 Ukraine - Portugal
