A real volleyball legend in her home country, Russia's Lioubov Sokolova (Shashkova) is a double world champion from the 2006 and 2010 editions of the tournament
Moscow, Russia, September 10, 2014 - Russian volleyball legend Lioubov Sokolova (Shashkova) is set to miss the upcoming FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 and a chance to compete for a third consecutive title.
The 37-year old Sokolova - whose possible comeback was announced a couple of weeks ago - is not on the shortlist released by head coach Yury Marichev, and no longer with the group that is currently fine tuning its preparations at a training camp in Novogorsk, near Moscow.
The camp will continue through September 21, that is until Russia’s departure for Italy, where the reigning world champions will debut on September 23 in Verona against Thailand.
Coach Marichev has so far retained 15 players, but one name will be dropped from the list before the team travels to Italy. The players are:
Setters: Ekaterina Kosianenko, Evgenia Startseva
Middle-blockers: Anastasia Shlyakhovaya, Irina Fetisova, Irina Zaryazhko, Yulia Podskalnaya, Regina Moroz
Opposite hitters: Ekaterina Gamova, Natalia Obmochaeva, Natalia Malykh
Outside hitters: Tatiana Kosheleva, Alexandra Pasynkova, Yana Shcherban
Liberos: Svetlana Kryuchkova, Anna Malova
There have been several changes to the team that won bronze at the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals, played a couple of weeks ago in Tokyo, Japan. Regina Moroz – who received the award for the Most Spectacular Volleyball Player at the European Volleyball Gala in Vienna in June – has joined the team and will make her international debut with the Russian squad if her name is retained for the World Championship. Anastasia Shlyakhovaya is back from injury and has been training with the team since a previous camp in Kaliningrad.
Outside hitter Anastasia Bavykina returned to her club after the World Grand Prix Finals. Middle-blocker Iuliia Morozova and outside hitter Iuliia Kutiukova are struggling with injuries and may not be fit in time for the World Championship.