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Aiming for qualifying for a third #EuroVolleyW (after having participated in 2015 and 2019), Slovenia started on the wrong foot in Pool F as Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed a straight sets victory. In what was an opener in the May #EuroVolleyW Qualifiers campaign, both teams entered the court in Olympic Center DAUGAVPILS inspired, but the players coached by head coach Stevan Ljubičić showed greater motivation with the better performance on the serving line (14 aces) becoming the key to the success. 

• It was a close in the first set, but Bosnia and Herzegovina were able to take the control of the play, outperforming their opponents on attack (18 winning spikes to 16 for Slovenia)
• The players around Alessandro Chiappini, who leads Slovenia since 2017, improved a lot on attack in the next set, but Bosnia and Herzegovina found the solution in these moments, pushing hard on the serve. 
• In the third set, Slovenia put up a real fight and delivered some excellent performance on the block (finishing in the match with 7 blocks). However, Bosnia and Herzegovina reacted quickly and didn’t let any big surprises happen - they managed to finish successfully most of their spikes, and thus, emerged victorious.
• Edina BEGIC (BIH) topped the charts with 21 points, while for Slovenia Darja ERŽEN recorded 18 points to her name. 
• Slovenia’s roster is quite different from the one of 2019, where the last edition of EuroVolleyW took place. Considered Slovenia’s best player, the opposite Iza Mlakar put an end to her career, while the recognized libero Maja Pahor had to quit playing Volleyball because of health issues. Missing are also the outside spiker Ana Marija Vovk and the middle blocker Ela Pintar (recovering from a knee surgery)
• Mirta Velikonja Grbac (born in 1998) makes first appearance for Slovenia's senior national team. The other two debutants are Naja Boisa and Lorena Lorber Fijok (both born in 2003). 

''This first game was very hard, very tough. Before the start of this tournament, we didn’t have the chance to play even one friendly game. I was pretty preoccupied to see how things will turn out for us in this game, we started good and after the first set everything was much easier for us.''

Stevan Ljubičić, head coach of BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA.

''I am sorry for the result. I think, we had our moments during the match when we played a bit better. We are a young team, who don’t count on a lot of experience. We are learning day by day, so I prefer that we perceive today as a lesson. Today, we made some errors that we could have avoided. Congratulations to Bosnia, they showed they have experienced players who lead the team."

Alessandro Chiappini, head coach of SLOVENIA