Izabela Belcik
“Every single match was a different story” says team captain Izabela Belcik. “The Russian players were very tired from their long journey to Poland, so that first game was quite easy for us and we played strong from the start until the very end. In the matches that followed we felt heavy legs but this is normal for we have been training really hard for the past few days, twice a day, so in the end our performance was not that good
Atom Trefl claimed the first game with the side from the Russian Far East 3:1, then it did draw twice (2:2) before losing 1:3 to SC POTSDAM. The Dutch head coach of Atom Trefl, Teun Buijs, is currently working with only eight players waiting for the return of Charlotte Leys (BEL), Judith Pietersen (NED), Zuzanna Efimienko (POL) and Brizitka Molnar (SRB) who are all competing at the EuroVolley 2013 in Germany and Switzerland. US American Kimberly Hill will also travel to Sopot only at the end of the NORCECA Championships scheduled for September 14-22 in Omaha, Nebraska.
“It is always the same story for any team whose players are also playing for the national team” Belcik says. “This is even more complicated for us because our girls are playing for five different teams and so they do not have the chance to practice together when they are away. They all have a totally different system and way of playing. That’s why they will have to adjust to our system quite quickly once they finally get back to Sopot. We will have only a very short time before the start of the season but I hope this will be enough”.
The staff working for the team was expanded hiring an assistant that will be working exclusively with the setters. “In the past few years though we did not have anyone responsible for this task we still could make up for this deficit. I have been playing for many years with our libero Mariola Zenik and so we are very open and she sometimes comes up with suggestions during the game. If I need any feedback, I know she’s behind me and she studies the way the block of our opponents reacts to my sets. The assistant coach the club has hired will help me a lot too, clearing my mind as soon as I need this. We just have to apply the conclusions of his analysis to the way we play out there on the court” Belcik adds.
Atom Trefl will start the national league playing Chemik POLICE, a side that has signed quite many Volleyball stars, including Malgorzata Glinka–Mogentale, Anna Werblinska (Baranska), and Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza. In the following rounds Trefl will play last year’s runner-ups Tauron MKS DABROWA GORNICZA to continue with the winners of the 2013 CEV Cup, MKS Muszynianka Fakro MUSZYNA before they get to play Romania’s Dinamo Romprest BUCURESTI in the first round of the 2014 CEV Volleyball Champions League.
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