She received the call-up to the games without playing. “There were a lot of thoughts in my head”
On Saturday, Stefano Lavarini announced the call-ups to the women’s volleyball team for the Olympic Games in Paris. The line-up includes two liberos. Maria Stenzel spoke.
The Polish women’s team opened the season brilliantly. In the Nations League, they won 10 out of 12 matches in the regular phase. In the final tournament, they first beat Turkey 3:2, then lost to Italy 0:3, and in the clash for the bronze medal, the white and reds won 3:2 against Brazil. In this way, they repeated the success of a year ago, when they also won bronze in this competition.
The team managed without Maria Stenzel
The team led by Stefano Lavarini recorded another great success, despite the fact that we did not see our best libero, Maria Stenzel, on the court in any match. Aleksandra Szczygłowska replaced her with great effect. Stenzel, on the other hand, had health problems. She underwent an operation to remove her appendix. She then trained alone for many weeks.
Lavarini is well aware of the sporting class that the 25-year-old presents. That is why he decided to call up two volleyball players in the libero position for the Olympic Games. Such situations do not happen very often. The most important thing is that Stenzel has managed to recover and can prepare for the competition in Paris together with her teammates.
– I always knew that I would get a chance to show myself in Szczyrk. At the same time, I hoped that there would be a place for me in the squad, as well as for Ola, because I saw how much she gave to the team this season in the national team. There were a lot of thoughts in my head, hypothetical formations appeared… I also knew that it is difficult to take someone to the Olympic squad if this person has not played even one match in the team in the period preceding the most important competition of the four-year period – said Maria Stenzel in an interview with the sport.tvp.pl portal.
The Polish national team is going to fulfill their dreams
The Polish women will begin their competition on Sunday, July 28, with a match against Japan at 1:00 p.m. In the second round, they will face Kenya (July 31, 9:00 p.m.), and at the end of the group stage, they will face Brazil (August 4, 9:00 p.m.). The top two teams from each group and the top two third-place teams will advance to the quarterfinals.
