The nice thing about championship titles that you win from afar is often the adventure that comes with it after the last ball. At least that’s how it was with Stuttgart’s volleyball players on Saturday evening. Not only did they take the trophy with them to the hotel bar in Potsdam to pre-glow, they also wisely packed their evening wear. And so the hard-fought 3-1 (20:25, 25:12, 25:19, 27:25) win against Potsdam was just the beginning of a night that led the players into the Berlin club scene – and only then back to the hotel early in the morning and shortly afterwards to the coach.
They were all immensely relieved, overcome with emotion. The game was somehow a reflection of the entire season for Allianz MTV Stuttgart: First this messed up first set, then the dominance in the second and third set, when the attacking power of the Americans Krystal Rivers and Simone Lee almost froze the Potsdam women – and in which Stuttgart’s sports director Kim Renkema “rediscovered the fire in the eyes of our players”. At the end of the fourth set, a drama of its own with two match points for Stuttgart at 24:22, Potsdam’s return and finally Rivers’ attack, which cemented Stuttgart’s third German title.
Rivers and Lee formed a duo unmatched in the league
Of course Rivers, who else? In 2019, the league’s top player had turned the match point into Stuttgart’s very first German championship title, and in 2022 that for the second DM title. This season, however, she initially lost the Supercup against Potsdam with Stuttgart. Rivers was injured in the cup semi-final, which Schwerin won in a five-set drama. Now the 28-year-old has once again formed an attacking duo with Lee in the final series against Potsdam, the power and athleticism of which nobody else in the Bundesliga can match.
Tore Aleksandersen celebrates the title.
(Photo: Hansjürgen Britsch/Pressefoto Baumann/Imago)
Rivers hugged her trainer Tore Aleksandersen very tightly in Potsdam, they are also connected through their medical history. Rivers, who was born with tethered spinal cord syndrome and couldn’t walk as a child, also got cancer as a teenager – and still became a professional athlete with irrepressible will. Aleksandersen made public in January that he was terminally ill with prostate cancer, which he had already been diagnosed in early 2020. The whole team therefore also played for their coach, who could no longer stand on the sidelines in the playoffs. The 55-year-old, who is being treated with immunotherapy in Tübingen, had to leave the coaching to assistant trainer Faruk Feray.
Many emotions in the game: Stuttgart’s volleyball players around Simone Lee (right) and Krystal Rivers (2nd from left) win the next title.
(Photo: Hansjürgen Britsch/Pressefoto Baumann/Imago)
One can only imagine how badly such a situation affects a team. How strong blocker Marie Schölzel had to be in the last few days, whose last year’s teammate from Bologna, Ana Paula Borgo, died of cancer on Thursday at the age of 29. But maybe that’s why they stuck together even more in this final series. “It’s as strong as Tore and the team managed,” says Renkema.
Aleksandersen, who has been training in Stuttgart since December 2020 despite his illness and has since led to two championship titles, a cup win and the quarter-finals of the Champions League, should stay according to the wishes of those responsible. “He has a contract,” says Renkema, “and if his health is good, he will continue.” At the same time, the club has signed Konstantin Bitter from Schwarz-Weiß Erfurt as the new assistant coach, who could also step in as head coach should Aleksandersen no longer work.
Kisses for Libera: Stuttgart’s Roosa Koskelo is hugged by Krystal Rivers (right) and Simone Lee (left).
(Photo: Hansjürgen Britsch/Pressefoto Baumann/Imago)
The club has to say goodbye to Simone Lee, the outside attacker moves to Turkey like Laura Künzler. But Stuttgart has apparently already committed a strong replacement for the key player Lee. In addition, five regular players will stay with MTV, which will therefore build a team around Rivers that is fit for the title. They all know that in the future they can only really beat themselves – after everything that has happened.