Colombia NT

    sloth wrote: I don't know if here is the right place to say, but, Maria Alejandra is putting on a wonderful show today


    hi sloth, here’s a thread just for you...


    i don’t know if we have any posters from COL but i figure maybe we’ll get some more info about the NT. COL today is about the 2nd best team in so. am. so they might be in tokyo representing SA, now that BRA has qualified.


    they have made so much progress in the last few years; great job by rizola and his team working with this young group. too bad they did not have such depth when kenni moreno & madelaynne montaño were playing...


    about the final match against BRA, i thought it was interesting that he was trying out ivonne montaño (is she related to MM?) as sub OPP in the double sub instead of ana karina olaya, who did so well in the pan am games. the double sub didn’t really work for them unfortunately. OTOH the connection of marin with darlevis mosquera really improved and she got so many kills. i think darlevis also blocked lorenne 4x at least. segovia’s level unfortunately seems to have dropped so hopefully she can get back to her better form.


    anyone knows which players are playing abroad? i know marin is in BRA, and i think coneo plays in FRA.

    Maria actually got awarded best setter. She truly deserved it.

    Rizola is literally a master in youth-volleyball, has master degrees about it and everything... really good coach, Colombia are really luck to have him..


    Ivonne is Madelaynne's sister :)


    Segovia played in Brazil last season too (together with Marin and Rizola) and i think she will be in France, but i don't think in the same club as Coneo (Cannes)... The amazing libero plays in the US... I don't know about the rest of them

    Colombia NT team is a rising star. Everything started with the brazilian coach Mauro Marasciulo, who has trained in Italy too. He was the one who started to win some sets against Peru and Argentina, the teams which were fighting for the second spot in South America.

    When Mauro Marasciulo left Colombian NT (he moved to Peru), Colombia had already beat Peru and Argentina at least once.

    But all the boom started with Antonio Rizola. He is a well known brazilian coach who was the responsable of many "golden generations" in the youth and junior generations, as well as Luizomar De Moura.

    One of the main problems of this team before the arrival of the brazilian coaches was the setter position. It was just a nightmare. Montano and Moreno couldnt shine with such a weak setting. But they were very good in blocking.

    Talking about Ivone Montano, she has previously played like MB during all her career in youth and junior level. She had a serious injury, now she is back like opposite.

    Another problem with the current colombian team is the bench. The gap between the starters and the bench is very big. Most of all, in the setter and OH positions.


    Many of the colombian players have previously played in the peruvian league. For example, the MB Melisa Rangel, the same Amanda Coneo and some others who were in the main team (Marta Nieva, Cindy Ramirez, Diana Arrechea, Paola Ampudia, Yeisy Soto, who played in Frances, etc). If I am not wrong, Rangel played in Spain the last season, but now she is back to peruvian league.

    Eventhough Colombia has gotten silver medal in the last two editions of the SAC, it has been Argentina the team which has grab the most important berths for qualifying to the main vball tournments (WCH and Olympics).

    All the 7 starting players play abroad. Like Sloth already mentioned, Segovia and Maria Alejandra Marin played in Brazilian League last season. I think Segovia played in Germany some seasons ago. Now she will play in Beziers. Amanda Coneo played in a poor peruvian team. She has played in italian A2 and now in RC Cannes. Maria Margarita Martinez will stay in Frances, in Volley Club Marcq, which was the surprise of the last french season.

    leonardo, thank you so much for your perspective on the COL NT over the years.


    one thing i would note is that their current fivb ranking doesn't reflect the strength of this team. COL was not one of the 24 teams that just contested the IOQT, and there were only 2 teams (ARG and BRA) from south america, whereas there were several teams that are probably weaker than COL, incl. MEX, KAZ, KEN, ARG and CAN. recently COL has also defeated PUR a couple of times, which shows their progress.


    also at the WCh, there were only 2 slots for s. america (BRA and ARG), and there were 7 from norceca, which was very unbalanced.


    leonardo, i remember when COL won the silver medal in the s. amer. ch. 2 years ago, they had moreno, montaño and a very young marin at the time...


    do you know where carabali, rangel and mosquera play now? also the current team is missing giselle perez (OH), who i thought was one of their main subs for the wings.

    This is a really good overview on their progress! Thank you.


    The current Colombian NT is actually really likeable. Other than Brazil, they're definitely the ones I root for these days when it comes to South America representation. Personally, I'm a big fan of Maria Alejandra and both their OHS, Margarita Martinez and Amanda Coneo. Coneo in particular looks like such a confident and positive energy on court, like she's been playing as an adult forever, and I really enjoy watching her play. She was also criminally robbed of a spot in the PanAm dream team.


    Anyway, it'd be really cool if they managed to clinch a spot in Tokyo; imo they deserve and it could boost their confidence even further. I'll be hoping for the best!

    Thanks for introducing a team that's hardly known outside its continent.


    I hope to watch COL team (more) in the world's competition, such as VNL, Montreux etc. Watch the ARG a lot, but they are not impressive.


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

    i have always loved coneo, i have said here for a long time now that she's a star. she's not that tall (177 cm) but she is a good jumper and hitter. and she's pretty as heck too.


    always loved margarita martinez too. she's not as good a hitter as coneo, and she's quiet and humble (like lorenne), she goes about doing her job without attitude, i think she's a great player.


    as leonardo said, COL lacks right now some good backups. every time i see the double sub, it doesn't seem to work well, the backup setters he has tried (angie velasquez now at pan am games and s. am. ch.; before, melissa montero) haven't been anywhere close to marin's level. he's been experimenting with the sub OPP, olaya is very promising, she's so young and also very tall, she had some good kills at pan am games as a sub. don't know veronica passos and ivonne montaño so much yet.


    as for MBs, mosquera, rangel and carabali are all very young, so the future looks good for COL. the libero (juliana and camila) are doing great too.


    two other players they have that did not play recently with the team are yeisy soto (MB) and giselle perez (OH).