The competition ended a bit different than as expected. First surprise was the failure of Poland's qualification to finals. Then, the silver medalist of this generation Italy's very bad performance, which might be understandable in the absence of their two best players, Malinov and Bonifacio. Turkey is the only team which remains the same ranking they had in youth ECh. They had won the match against Serbia at Balkan Championship 1 week ago but couldn't repeat that performance yesterday However, Serbia improved their performance with rising star Boskoviç. Greece improved their ranking from 5th to 4th. They miss Stranzali a lot. if she was there, they might win over Slovenia. Slovenia is the one which made the biggest improvement (from 6th place to 2nd). Germany was the another team who couldn't reach to finals although they were 7th in youth ECh. Russia has increase their ranking from 8th to 7th whereas Bulgaria also made a big improvement by reaching 5th position although I was expecting from them to reach semis. Czech Republic and Belgium were also other teams which improve their ranking compared to their place in youth ECh.
All in all, I really like this 96-97 generation, there are plenty of interesting players which I am curious about their transition to senior level. To me, the most promising players in each position are;
Setters: Eva Mori, Arelya Karasoy, Ofelia Malinov, Irına Kemmsies, Paulina Badyga
Opposite: Tijana Boskoviç, Nika Markoviç, Pelin Aroğuz, Anthi Vasilantonaki, Karolina Goliat, Malwina Smarzek, Anna Nicoletti
Middle-blockers: Maja Aleksic, Ela Pintar, Hande Baladin, Eva Lakoma, Anastasia Barchuk, Sarah Cools, Sara Bonifacio, Juliet Lohuis, Kornelia Moskwa, Wiebke Silge
Offensive OHs: Bojana Milenkoviç, Lana Scuka, Mislina Kılıç, Olga Stranzali, Gergana Dimitrova, Michaela Mlejnkova, Angelina Sperskaite, Dominika Strumilo, Anastasia Guerra, Magdalena Damaske
Defensive OHs: Sara Lozo, Anita Sobocan, Ada Germen, Alexandra Psoma, Miroslava Paskova, Veronika Hradzirova, Tatiana Iurinskaia, Celine van Gestel, Sofia D'odorico, Helene Cazaute
Liberos: Milena Dimic, Maja Pahor, Zhana Todorova, Janieke Popma, Pola Nowakowska