Serbian Women's NT 2022

    Quote from Bogdan

    That finger injury, not only did it deprive her of two medals for this eternal list, but also the set of all three European golds, which would make her the only one.

    Not only that, but it would make her the only player to have won all 4 golds in Serbian volleyball history.:cheesy:;(

    Quote from Madden54

    maja didn’t get all 3 ?

    No. Fun fact, only Milena Rasic and Tijana Malesevic have won the first 2 (2011 and 2017), and Milena only played 1 match (and only for 1 set, if I remember correctly) in the latter competition and Malesevic had only a small role in the former. So 2 completely different teams won those 2 golds, basically.:lol:

    Stefana almost ended her career in 2011 due to cardiac issues, so it's good she managed to boost her medal tally as much. I still miss her so much ;(


    Two crazy things:

    - Bjelica having twice as many medals as Brakočević :cheesy:

    - Đerisilo only having ONE medal. She was the best player of the team that broke through on the international stage in 2005/6! That shoulder injury really ruined everything for her.


    The funny thing is, I feel Spasojević and Đerisilo are still more popular than most players currently on the team.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    Stefana almost ended her career in 2011 due to cardiac issues, so it's good she managed to boost her medal tally as much. I still miss her so much ;(


    Two crazy things:

    - Bjelica having twice as many medals as Brakočević :cheesy:

    Me too! Of all players that stopped playing in the last couple of years, I miss Stefana the most, by far.;(


    And almost. Bjelica was deducted one medal, and is now at 11.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    The funny thing is, I feel Spasojević and Đerisilo are still more popular than most players currently on the team.

    Probably true, but most of that is due to charisma and the looks. I remember casuals bemoaning on our forums as late as Rio that Terzic is to blame for Spasojevic no longer playing for NT (she retired from volleyball in 2014!).:lol:

    God, that was so annoying. She was long retired from volleyball and had been a non-factor for years, and people were still crying about her absence.

    But it's undeniable that she has insane charisma and was basically the face of the team that put women's volleyball on the map in Serbia. Such a shame her career turned out the way it did. And also a shame that we haven't had a similar magnetic personality type of player since. Veljković certainly has the looks, but she was never interested in media exposure.


    Another crazy fact: WCH '06 was the last time Spasojević and Đerisilo played together.

    Why did Spasojević leave? Was there something about the separation of Serbia & Montenegro?

    No, it had nothing to with that. She played ECh '07 carrying an injury and after Serbia won the silver and qualified for the World Cup just over a month later, she wanted to skip the tournament and rest up. Terzić disagreed with it but she decided to pull out anyway. It didn't sit well with him at all and she was never called up again. Shortly before the Beijing Olympics she held a press conference basically saying she wouldn't be playing on the NT again as long as he was the coach - not in those words, but that was the point.

    It was quite a scandal. She was crazy popular and people got wild and didn't get off Terzić's back for years. I think many even cheered against the NT out of sheer spite.

    He never commented publicly on that. Rumour had it that he was willing to invite her back at some point (2011, I think), but she declined. There was also a rumour that she and Jelena Nikolić couldn't stand each other and Terzić had to pick one of them.

    Yeah, in 2011 and 2012 it was noticeable how several of the players who haven't played since Beijing 2008 started to return (most noticeable, Đerisilo and Vesna Čitaković), so I believe that rumour of wanting to call her back. My personal theory is that the wilderness of the 2009 and 2010 NT seasons that humbled (and embarrassed) Terzic enough for him to do that.

    What to say it, i don't know if it something new and smart to say, but "tradition" request to close this competition with summarize.


    And the summarize in short would be that we won one more WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP title.

    And that's enough but maybe for someone else, i will try to go deeper.


    Without four superstar players, new coach, couple of new faces at big stage, somebody could say tough situation, but in reality all this stuff was the key factors for our success and back to back world title.


    And everything starts in this way:


    Drca after great season in Crvena Zvezda, but not even on the radar of worldwide volleyball, Mirkovic's horror, no young setters capable of steping up and assuming more important role than just fulfill the lineup of 14, Boskovic is there but after one more disappointing club season she need a rest, Bjelica being Bjelica, injured young prospects like Cars and Savic, Mihajlovic done as player, Lozo - who ?, Lazovic benched in second half of the season, Busa back from injury and surgery - one year without volleyball, Milenkovic being Milenkovic - 0 confidence, Pusic solid but non factor libero, Aleksic and Stevanovic with good seasons but still not good enough in comparation with iconic Rasic - Veljkovic duo, truly with some really solid bench players such as Kocic and Popovic (regardless of the horrible season).


    It is true that it is written with a tragic undertone, but in essence it was all really the right situation somewhere in May before the start of the NT season. A fight was expected and certainly that some players would gain their shape back through the VNL (primarly Lazovic), but medal for sure wasn't on table, even final round placement was a big question mark (IMO).


    Fast forward 5 months later, and here we are, World Champions again. And all of this girls contributed to that. It really was a team effort, with such a fighting mindest, focused and high quality team playing in great atmosphere with clear goals, meeting the goals was inevitable.


    Proud of this girls :rose:

    a lot of people counted us out saying Boskovic couldn’t do it alone. She didn’t have to. ;) everyone was so good. It was so cool to see everyone contribute in some way. So glad for Brankica to prove she had something left to give even though I hope this was her last time. What a great send off

    Another (and the most important) decisive victory from Serbia. Consecutive match winnings and also taking trophies. Congrats to back to back champions :super:


    They just sweep up the whole tournement, I never remember that level dominance maybe since Brazil 2008-2012, you should be so proud of that.


    Especially Tijana Boskovic... She proved that she is the best of bests. I am happy to see her new level of volleyball in club season period with Eczacıbaşı :cheesy:.


    One last thing about Jovana Stevanovic. At this tournament, she is seemed to me like Eda Erdem tbh. Same behaviour, same game style, and same leading.:win:

    volleySrb And to think that next year such talents as Uzelac, Tica, Kurtagic or Osmajic will join:obey:

    Quote from Olcay12

    volleySrb And to think that next year such talents as Uzelac, Tica, Kurtagic or Osmajic will join:obey:


    Yes, i don't worry about serbian team future at all.


    I watched Uzelac at friday and she played really amazing, also yesterday Gocanin played at very high level.


    And best thing is that at every single position that they will play we have now good player, so they will play next 3,4 years just like a helpers (something that Aleksic played last 4 years) and they will not feel pressure during transition in senior team.

    Okay, I promised an updated version of my previous list with exact composition of medals for each girls, so here it is:


    Maja Ognjenović 12 (3 4 5) 2007 ECH, 2011 ECH, 2015 ECH, 2019 ECH

    Milena Rašić 11 (3 3 5) 2018 WCH, 2016 OG, 2011 WGP, 2013 WGP, 2017 WGP

    Ana Bjelica 11 (4 2 5)

    Brankica Mihajlović 11 (4 2 5) 2017 ECH, 2019 ECH 2016 OG, 2015 WC, 2013 WGP

    Bianka Buša 11 (4 3 4)

    Silvija Popović 10 (3 3 4)

    Tijana Bošković 10 (4 3 3) 2018 WCH, 2022 WCH (2), 2020 OG, 2017 ECH, 2019 ECH (2), 2021 ECH, 2017 WGP

    Stefana Veljković 9 (3 3 3) 2017 ECH

    Tijana Malešević 9 (3 2 4)

    Bojana Drča 9 (3 2 4) 2022 WCH

    Jelena Nikolić 8 (1 3 4)

    Jovana Stevanović 8 (3 2 3) 2022 VNL

    Bojana Milenković 8 (4 1 3)

    Suzana Ćebić 7 (1 2 4) 2006 WCH, 2011 ECH, 2013 ECH

    Mina Popović 7 (3 1 3)

    Jovana Brakočević 6 (1 2 3) 2007 ECH, 2011 ECH, 2013 ECH, 2011 WGP, 2013 WGP

    Slađana Mirković 6 (3 1 2)

    Teodora Pušić 6 (4 0 2) 2022 WCH

    Brižitka Molnar 5 (1 1 3)

    Nataša Krsmanović 5 (1 1 3)

    Jelena Blagojević 5 (2 1 2)

    Maja Aleksić 5 (3 0 2)

    Jovana Vesović 4 (1 1 2)

    Sanja Malagurski 3 (1 0 2)

    Katarina Lazović 4 (2 1 1)

    Ana Lazarević 3 (1 0 2)

    Ana Antonijević 3 (1 0 2)

    Nađa Ninković 3 (1 0 2)

    Vesna Čitaković 2 (0 1 1)

    Anja Spasojević 2 (0 1 1)

    Maja Simanić 2 (0 1 1)

    Jasna Majstorović 2 (0 1 1)

    Jovana Kocić 2 (0 1 1)

    Sara Lozo 2 (1 0 1)

    Aleksandra Ranković 1 (0 0 1)

    Ivana Đerisilo 1 (0 0 1)

    Ivana Isailović 1 (0 1 0)

    Sara Carić 1 (0 1 0)

    Sanja Djurdjević 1 (0 0 1)

    Aleksandra Jegdić 1 (1 0 0)


    The first number in the parentheses are gold medals, the second silver and third bronze. Competitions listed after some of the names are those where the girl in question was included in the Dream Team. So, the number of Dream Team places our girls have are as follows:


    Tijana Bošković 9

    Jovana Brakočević 5

    Milena Rašić 5

    Brankica Mihajlović 5

    Maja Ognjenović 4

    Suzana Ćebić 3

    Stefana Veljković 1

    Jovana Stevanović 1

    Bojana Drča 1

    Teodora Pušić 1


    It's a bit surprising that Suzana Ćebić has so many, and a bit disappointing (though not surprising) that Veljković has so few. It also leaves something of an unpleasant taste in the mouth that Maja has never been chosen for Dream Team for any competition other than ECH.

    Some more random observations:


    -Teodora Pusic has never yet lost a final in her NT career!:heart:4 golds and zero silvers! Maja Aleksic has 3 finals and 3 golds.

    -Maybe the unluckiest one in terms of the value of won medals and the number of them is Jelena Nikolic. 8 medals and only 1 gold (and 4 bronze). Tough luck.

    -Bianka Busa is not only in the Top 5 in terms of won medals, but she is the only one besides Boskovic who was a member of each of the 8 teams that won medals in the 3 most valuable competitions (OG, WCH and ECH) since 2015...ladies and gentlemen, Bianka is determined to become a volleyball legend and it seems she won't be denied! We have no choice but to stan!:obey::obey: