Laura Dijkema
The setter of the Dutch team Laura Dijkema has analyzed their rivals and the chances of her team at the upcoming tournament.
– You had 6-3 score in the regular season of the World Grand Prix 2017. How would you rate the performances of the Netherlands in these nine games?
“We played two pretty good weekends in the Netherlands and Russia, where we improved every game. I think we played our best match against Russia in Kaliningrad. After that we played a really bad weekend in Brasil and played 3 bad matches in a row.”
– What are your expectations for the Final Six tournament?
“First of all, we are very happy to be in the Final 6 again. It is such a good competition with 5 high level opponents. I expect a lot of Chinese volleyball fans in the crowd and I think that they will see some really interesting matches. We are motivated to play better than we did our last weekend in Brazil.”
– You will meet Brazil and China in Pool J – short comment about your rivals.
“We lost earlier in this tournament against Brazil with some pretty clear numbers, we didn’t play good and they were beating us in every aspect of the game. They have some great spikers with amazing reach. We have to work a lot with our defense. Also China is a strong team, with some Olympic champions mixed with young talents in the squad. China is famous about their various offense and good defense. We will face them for the first time in this tournament. We have to play our best to beat those teams like Brasil and China, so I am looking forward to start of the tournament.”
– Who is the favorite for winning the World Grand Prix 2017 from your point of view?
“I think all 6 teams have an equal chance to win the title.”
– We know that you have one more year of contract with Igor Volley Novara. Are you going to stay in this team for the season 2017/2018?
“I hope to give soon more information about this topic, to be continued,” finishes Laura with an interesting answer about the next season.
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