Following the departure of successful head coach Kris Vansnick and a wave of injuries, volleyball club Asterix Avo had to make significant adjustments this summer. On Wednesday at 7.30 pm, the record Belgian champions from Beveren will begin their Champions League campaign against Slovenia’s Maribor with a much younger squad.

To address the immediate problems in attack caused by injuries to Liese Verhelst and Ella Joosen, with Helena Gilson also still recovering, the club signed Dutch international Iris Scholten (26) as a medical replacement. The experienced opposite has agreed a contract until the end of November, after which she will join Dallas Pulse in the United States to compete in the revamped Major League.

One of the youngest teams in Europe

Despite a turbulent build-up, the new coaching staff, led by head coach Frederik De Veylder and assistant Janko Van Hecke, made a flawless start to the Lotto Volley League with two confidence-boosting victories. With an average age of just 22, the youthful squad is among the youngest in the Champions League and has gained some much-needed confidence.

“We have lost a lot of maturity, but we have gained a great deal of talent in return,” De Veylder says, summing up the club’s transformation. “Experienced players such as our captain and Yellow Tiger Elise Van Sas, alongside Nel Demeyer and Dutch players Scholten and Lette Wiegerinck, will have to guide our young generation of Belgian talent this season: Flore Maes, Sarah Hauben, Jasmine Debout, Romane Neufkens, Ana Van den Spiegel and Kaat Peeters.”

There have also been major changes at board level. Long-serving figures Jan Bens and Patrick Kehoe, who helped build the club over several decades, are no longer involved. At the start of the season, new chairman Gino Rossaer stressed the need for further professionalisation to safeguard the future of a club whose history includes 18 national titles, 19 domestic cups and two European finals. The memorable gold medal in the 2001 Top Teams Cup, now known as the CEV Cup, and the silver medal in the 2010 CEV Challenge Cup remain unforgettable highlights. But the focus is on moving forward. “This club, with its great past, must become a club with a great future,” is the message from the new board.

The group stage as the ultimate goal

Wednesday evening brings the first major test: the first leg of the Champions League qualifying tie against Slovenia’s OTP Bank Branik Maribor. If the Beveren club gets through this round, decisive matches against Portugal’s Porto or Spain’s Andalusia await in November.

The ultimate goal remains a place in the Champions League group stage, where prestigious fixtures await against France’s Mulhouse, Poland’s Uni Opole and Turkish powerhouse Vakifbank Istanbul, where former national team head coach Gert Vande Broek currently works. If Asterix Avo are eliminated in qualifying, they could drop into the CEV Cup, but that scenario is being put to one side in Beveren for now.

“Maribor are a fairly young team, with several players who have represented Slovenia at youth level and, in some cases, with the senior national team,” says De Veylder. “They put a lot of emphasis on power volleyball. Perhaps a little more on physical strength and a little less on technique. That is where we may find opportunities. They have a very large squad, with plenty of substitution options. That is a stark contrast to our team, where, with all these injuries, we really cannot afford any further setbacks.”

“Another advantage is that they have not played an official league match yet. Their only competitive outing was the Super Cup, which the Slovenian federation organised for the very first time last week in Ljubljana. Despite being the reigning league and cup champions, Maribor suffered a surprise defeat to Gen-i.

It remains to be seen which line-up Maribor will start with, because they have so many options. Last week, they even played without an opposite, using three outside hitters instead. Perhaps they were resting their American opposite. We will soon find out.”

“Our two wins against Gent and Noorderkempen did us a lot of good. For now, we are not thinking too much about the next round of the Champions League. We would certainly like to progress, because I consider our potential opponents from Porto or Andalusia to be less strong than Maribor. Then the group stage would be within reach. But first, let us focus on this round. We are certainly very motivated and really looking forward to it.”

Text: Walter Vereeck
Photo: Rudy Pollé