After many years of waiting, the Zagreb and Croatian public will finally have the opportunity to watch the matches of the CEV Champions League live. HAOK Mladost Zagreb volleyball players won their place in the elite European competition after defeating the Gacko team from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the second leg with a score of 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17). This victory brought a historic success for HAOK Mladost and a significant step forward for this generation of female players.
In the coming season, HAOK Mladost will compete in Group A of the CEV Champions League, where they will face some of the strongest European clubs. The opponents are the Italian Conegliano, the Bulgarian Marica Plovdiv, and the Polish Rzeszow. Mladost will play their first game on November 7th, away to Conegliano.
Leonarda Grabić stood out in the victory over Gacko with an impressive 25 points (including three blocks). In contrast, Tonka Bošnjak, with 11 points, and Aurora Papac, with 8 points (3 blocks), made a significant contribution. Ana Ištuk added 6 points, Ana Prkačin and Mirta Freund each had 5, Andrea Koraca had 4, and Marija Vrban and Rita Bogati Pantelić each scored 1 point.
Congratulations to our teammates, the staff and the administration, this is a huge step for us, a huge success. We had a very difficult preparation period, I think we did our best. We started in the first set as agreed, in the second we fell a little bit, but in the third we decided to close that chapter and go to the Champions League. Here, at the end, we are happy because of the victory and the chosen performance in the strongest European club competition – Ana Ištuk, HAOK Mladost Zagreb captain
