The volleyball season actually started several months ago. But for the BR Volleys on Saturday evening it should feel a bit like the season is just starting now. Because of numerous corona cases, the team has not played a game for over a month. First, before Christmas, some players tested positive, so the entire team had to be quarantined, and then there were more cases in the team’s environment in the new year.
“Of course we can’t have the rhythm that’s often invoked in volleyball,” says coach Cédric Énard. “We’ve only been training with all the players again for a few days and now we have to quickly find our way to the toughness of the competition.” It won’t be easy, because the volleys are the first to receive long-term rivals VfB Friedrichshafen (8 p.m./spontent) and in the coming week it will be in the Champions League against Lisbon.
The game against Friedrichshafen also starts the newly created Bundesliga intermediate round, which was brought forward due to the Corona situation. Two groups were formed for this, in which the four best teams from the main round (Group A) and places five to eight (Group B) play against each other. All points from the main round were deleted and new points were awarded according to the respective placement.
The premature demolition did not change much in the ranking: The Volleys had secured first place in the table and thus the best starting position and nine points early on. It was similar for the other teams. Only Düren (six points) and Frankfurt (three) swap places in the table, with Frankfurt going into the intermediate round in second place and Düren in third place.
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But not only the volleys, but also the other clubs should start the intermediate round quite shaken. Friedrichshafen, for example, has been faced with the problem of not having its own hall and having to go to Ulm for every home game since the beginning of the season. Corona cases have now been added and Libero Blair Bann, who has to undergo hip surgery, will be out for an indefinite period. His failure could give the volleys a small advantage.
Coach Énard now wants to look ahead and not let the concerns of the pandemic get him down: “The complaints are over now. There are now consistently matches at a very high level waiting in the second round of the Bundesliga, in the cup and in the Champions League, and we’re looking forward to that.”
At least the mood within the team doesn’t seem to be affected by the situation: on Thursday in the changing room, they celebrated the birthday of captain Sergej Grankin, who was presented with a large pack of donuts by teammate Benjamin Patch, on which a golden 60 was emblazoned. The Volleys wrote: “If your bro knows exactly how old you feel.” Against Friedrichshafen, however, Grankin wants to move appropriately on the field for his age – the Russian was 37.
