Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2016/17

  • Tomorrow we have the second match of the best of five series in Stuttgart: because Schwerin won first match and has advantages in freshness, stamina and lower stress travelling, IMHO Stuttgart has only one chance in the remaining matches: they must excel tomorrow and win in 3, at most 4 mostly clear sets, to have a chance, to win also in Schwerin on Wednesday and than finish the upset of favorite Schwerin again in Stuttgart on Saturday in one week. All other results tomorrow and on Wednesday will nearly for sure lead to the 11th championship of Schwerin.

  • At all bookmakers Schwerin is favorited even in todays match (despite not as clear as in Schwerin at last), what is not realistic IMHO. Although Schwerin is pretty good also on the road, Stuttgart is strongest home team of all.

  • Stuttgart - Schwerin 1:3 (20:25 25:14 20:25 16:25)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2529.pdf
    MVP: Aiyana Whitney / Lenka Dürr


    Very entertaining match with many nice rallies and good fight on both sides. Schwerin played amazing in 1st set, then had a complete blackout in 2nd but returned strong from 3rd set on. Stuttgart with many problems: Renata Sandor had a lot of pain in her bad knee, the problem is that due to Renkema's illness Sandor had to play all matches this season despite just having recovered from her ACL injury and now she has to pay for it. Julia Schaefer who also had a knee injury this season came in to replace her but Schwerin served her off the court, so in 4th set Hernandez even tried Debbie van Daelen as OH because Sandor obviously couldn't return. Buakaew and Mlejnkova tried to cover more court in reception but also struggled because of that, so Stuttgart overall played without reception. Aiyana Whitney had a good match and Mlejnkova also attacked well but it wasn't enough.
    For Schwerin only Maren Brinker had a bad day and was replaced well by Ariel Gebhardt. Louisa Lippmann was outstanding, Jenny Geerties also did well and both MBs contributed well, also both setters did a good job. Bad for Schwerin: Lauren Barfield injured her hand in 3rd set, I didn't see what happened but she went out because she was bleeding and after the match Koslowski said she even had to be stitched in the hospital :white: I doubt that she can play on Wednesday. According to Hernandez it's also very questionable if Sandor can play.


    3rd match on Wednesday in Schwerin is the first chance for them to finish the championship but Stuttgart sure won't give up easily.

  • We want to be honest and face reality: after losing two of the three most important outside hitters (Renkema, Sandor) and both first matches, including home match today, Stuttgart is without any realistic chance now (far below 10%). Despite Deborah van Daelen did play outside hitter in a former season, this setup will hardly work...


    I'm very sorry for league interested viewers, that we couldn't deliver more resistance (win today was expected by most of us) and didn't make the finals more tense, but such things happen in sports...


    Interestingly Schwerin not even took advantage of their much higher budget and were also here by bus... But remember, they were much more fresh and well prepared nevertheless than Stuttgart before start of finals, and only today lost one player (Barfield), so they have now a tremendous advantage and Stuttgart will have a real hard time on Wednesday to win a set at all in the Palmberg hall, after traveling again 800 km s and being very disappointed now, playing with only one first grade outside hitter.


    One key reason, because Schwerin will win final series is anyway they are a lot more constant over several sets as Stuttgart. This can't be compensated in a best-of-five series. Even if all had went more smooth for Stuttgart, IMHO chances in championship would have been at least 2:1 in favour of Schwerin.


    This is the best outcome for German league and European cups anyway: Schwerin can financially afford participating in CL, and we can hopefully again proceed directly to the much more cheap CEV cup omitting the hopeless, energy-consuming trial to qualify for CL, probably losing to a superiour Italian (?) team in last qualification round and being relegated to CEV cup anyway after that.

  • Today, 19.00 CET, live on http://www.vbl.tv and also on http://www.ndr.de/mv (commented by Kathleen Weiss), the 3rd and possibly last final match Schwerin vs Stuttgart :super:


    Schwerin's hall is sold out and they finally want their first title since 2013. IMO Stuttgart's only chance is that all their healthy players show 120%, otherwise Schwerin if they play their normal game is going to win. No news about Renata Sandor but I guess she won't play because she can't help the team anyway in that shape. Hernandez told the press that she didn't even practise in the last weeks in order to be able to play in the matches :white: I could imagine that Stuttgart goes with the option of using van Daelen as OH, Julia Schaefer isn't ready yet for that level so Debbie can do a better job even if she played the last years as OPP.

  • As expected, an easy final straight sets win for Schwerin at home, which gave them 11th title and saved Koslowski from serious consequences :) .


    Considering the financial superiority of both Schwerin and Dresden, another vice champion title for Stuttgart (the third in a row) is not bad at all, by the way. They won also supercup against defending champions of Dresden and DVV cup against Schwerin after trailing 0:2 in the final, and kicked off Dresden in both competitions (DVV cup and championship) before the finals.


    Schwerin is now qualified for CL group phase and can financially easily afford this, despite it is really very expensive for any German team, and also has no perspective of any kind of measurable success, because you will, heavily depending by the draw, become third or last of the group and simply fail to get to playoff-6, which is by far too difficult for any German team at now.


    Stuttgart will likely try again as the last time, to get permission for CEV cup directly, skipping the superfluous to harming CL qualification, we could not survive and would be relegated anyway in final qualifier round to CEV cup.


    Dresden has to play CEV cup, and I doubt, they would use the chance to play CL qualification if Stuttgart doesn't, because they would face the very same issue.


    Most likely Schwerin will play coming season again as top favorite, facing the biggest threat again from Stuttgart, and we will see, if respective how much Dresden can improve to get closer to the other two. But that is a story for the next season, the thread is already there...

  • StefanS,


    about next season. Any idea how many players will leave? What about the coaches?


    Head coach Hernandez has contract for next season, so OHs Michaela Mlejnková, Renata Sandor and Julia Schäfer have. Their are rumors, that Molly McCage will join from Wiesbaden, but nothing else is known to me so far.

  • For the sake of completeness:


    Schwerin - Stuttgart 3:0 (17, 14, 16) :white:
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2530.pdf
    MVP: Louisa Lippmann / Renata Sandor
    Series: 3-0


    Schwerin just demolished Stuttgart. With hindsight Stuttgart's spectacular and exhausting semifinal series against Dresden apparently robbed all their power, especially the 3rd match where they played excellent. In the first final match they had their chances, in the 2nd they had one good set and today they were dead on their feet.
    But looking at the whole season, the title is very deserved for Schwerin :super:
    Renata Sandor forced herself through one more match, I hope she takes some good rest now but since Hungary NT is going to need her for WCHQ I'm doubtful she'll get it :S
    Lauren Barfield was there for Schwerin with a heavily taped hand but didn't have to play.


  • For Renata Sandor and Hungary national team situation is even more difficult after the retirement of Dora Horvath, so Sandor will be nearly on her own in attack there this spring/summer.

  • Louisa Lippmann has been awarded MVP of the season with 9 Golden medals :cup:


    Deserved award IMO, she finally had her breakthrough season and consistently (except for very few matches) performed on a high level. It's also a good sign for NT :win:


    As for Schwerin, Jennifer Geerties, Lenka Dürr, Lauren Barfield, Louisa Lippmann and Marie Schölzel have contracts for next season. Ariel Gebhardt ends her career because she wants to study again. Lexi Dannemiller says she could imagine to stay. I expect Denise Hanke to stay as well but she hasn't signed yet.

  • Some news about MTV Stuttgart:


    Looks like that all 3 US girls and Wanna Buakaew will leave, van Daelen und Pissinato might stay.
    It seems not certain that Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez will stay, despise having a contract for next season.


    Source: Stuttgarter Zeitung

  • I guess Nichol will play for a big club next season. ^^


    I think she stayed only so far, because she had a now expiring two-years contract. Obviously she is too good to be kept in German league, she will surely receive offers from Poland, Italy and/or Turkey.

  • As expected Erfurt is allowed to play also the coming season in first league, despite they were not able to keep the league against the other teams, but as reported, no team from second league wants a first league license and no wildcard was applied for neither.