Tokyo, March 10, 2006: Despite ending 2005 ranked 30th in the world, the Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) women's team will fear no one at the 2006 World Championships.
The Serbs have been drawn with reigning world champions Italy, Peru, Turkey, Cuba and Egypt in Pool D, and power spiker Jelena Nikolic is confident they can finish in the top four and advance to the second round.
"We are a really good team and if we play well we can beat anyone. I trust in our team," Nikolic said in an interview for the 2006 World Championships official website.
"It's going to be difficult, but we have a very good team with 12 players who all play outside Serbia. They are young and I think we can make it," she added.
Of the 24 teams taking part, Serbia and Montenegro are ranked 30th in the world by the FIVB, above only one other qualifier, Costa Rica, who are 33rd.
But the 1.94-metre Nikolic feels the team is growing quickly, and gained a lot of experience with a seventh-place finish at the European Championships in Croatia in September 2005.
The Belgrade-born Nikolic is one of the most experienced members of her team.
At the age of 17 she went to Italy and played professionally for five years, with Reggio Emilia, Bergamo and Vicenza, and then moved to France for one season with Racing Club de Cannes.
Her travels have now brought her to Japan, where she has just completed her first season with Toray Arrows alongside a couple of Athens Olympians, Kana Oyama and Saori Kimura.
And she gave a hint of what all players coming to Japan for the women's and men's World Championships can expect from the volleyball-mad locals.
"The cheering here is very nice because they always support you," she said. "That's strange compared to Europe, because they are more aggressive over there and speak bad things if you don't play well -- especially in Serbia!
"Here the people are so nice. Everybody speaks to me nicely and they respect you. They give you everything and I hope to give them everything back with my game."
Nikolic said the playing style was different, too.
"The players here are not so physically strong but they never give up. The first thing is the collective, the team, whereas in Europe it's more about individual players."
While Nikolic will know the Italian and Turkish players well in Pool D action at Nagoya, she accepts that the Cubans present their own special challenge.
"Cuba cannot play with us!" she jokes.
"They are more beautiful than us; they have nice bodies and they jump so high! Why do we have to play Cuba?"
