TEAM COMPOSITION

CRO / Croatia

Team manager	Juraj Jogunica
Coach	Angelo Vercesi
Assistant coach	Goran Jovanovic
Doctor
Physiotherapist	Alessandro Fazio

	No.	Name	Lastname	Shirt Name	Birthdate	Height	Weight	Spike	Block	Club
	1	Senna	Ušic Jogunica	Senna	14.05.1986	191	78	302	292	Eczacibasi Vitra (TUR)
	2	Ana	Grbac	Grbac	23.03.1988	186	64	302	288	Volero Zürich
L	3	Nikolina	Bozicevic	Bozicevic	14.01.1995	160	62	282	273	OK Marina Kaštela
L	4	Nikolina	Jelic	Jelic	09.11.1991	190	69	310	294	KS Developres Rzeszów
	5	Antonija	Kaleb	Kaleb	02.04.1986	188	71	305	289	Jakarta BNI 46 (INA)
	6	Mira	Topic	Topic	02.06.1983	184	72	300	284	Tyumen (RUS)
	7	Bernarda	Cutuk	Cutuk	22.12.1990	186	76	317	300	SC Potsdam (GER)
	8	Mia	Jerkov	Jerkov	05.12.1982	192	68	310	295	Bursa Buyuksehir (TUR)
	9	Matea	Ikic	Ikic	25.05.1989	185	79	290	278	Pallavolo Ornavasso (ITA)
	10	Ivana	Miloš	Milos	07.03.1986	187	70	312	296	Agil Volley (ITA)
	11	Sanja	Popovic	Popovic	31.05.1984	186	76	291	283	Dinamo Moscow (RUS)
	12	Iva	Jurisic	Jurisic	24.03.1994	186	69	300	290	HAOK Mladost Zagreb (CRO)
	13	Samanta	Fabris	Fabris	08.02.1992	190	83	325	306	VBC Pomì Casalmaggiore
	14	Karla	Klari?	Klaric	05.09.1994	188	86	310	300	Volero Zürich (SUI)
	15	Bernarda	Brcic	Brcic	12.05.1991	192	81	305	297	Robur Tiboni Volley (ITA)
	16	Nikolina	Kovacic	Kovacic	30.04.1986	180	74	310	293	Rota Koleji (TUR)
	17	Jelena	Alajbeg	Alajbeg	01.10.1989	183	75	310	300	Iller Bankasi (TUR)
C	18	Maja	Poljak	Poljak	02.05.1983	194	80	305	300	Dinamo Moscow
	19	Lucija	Mlinar	Mlinar Lucija	06.05.1995	180	70	308	287	HAOK Mladost Zagreb (CRO)
	20	Tamara	Susic	Susic	28.11.1990	193	72	318	308	VBC Pomì Casalmaggiore
L	21	Marija	Ušic	Usic	05.02.1992	185	67	292	278	Amiens (FRA)
	22	Biljana	Gligorovic	Gligorovic	31.01.1982	183	68	298	292	Vrilission (GRE)

C=Captain L=Libero

Team profile

Croatia are making their World Grand Prix debut and they will look to veteran coach Angelo Vercesi to guide them through the experience. The glory days of Croatian women’s volleyball came in the 1990s when they took silver medals at the 1995, 1997 and 1999 European Championships and came fourth at the 1995 World Cup.

Their performances raised the sport’s profile in the country and many of the players at the World Grand Prix honed their skills on development programmes that sprang up on the back of the team’s success. The Croatians made it through to the quarterfinals of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games beating Australia, Kenya and Korea along the way. Their last appearance at the World Championship was in 2010 when they came 17th.

The team will take encouragement from their fifth-place finish at last year’s European Championship. They beat the Netherlands in the pool play-offs before going down to Germany in the quarterfinals.

Despite it being the team's debut in the competition they are aiming for a spot in the Final Four of Group Three, and they bring a mix of experienced stars and young prospects to help them achieve their target.

Coach profile

Angelo Vercesi will lead Croatia’s first tilt at the World Grand Prix. He knows exactly what it takes to succeed in the tournament having led his native Brazil team to gold in 2005 and 2006. His two-year reign as Brazil coach also saw the side win the 2005 Grand Champions Cup and South American Championship.

He then spent four trophy-laden seasons in Italy with Scavolini Pesaro, initially as assistant coach, and guided them to league and CEV Cup triumphs in 2008 and an Italian Super Cup win in 2009. More recently, Vercesi coached teams in Croatia and Azerbaijan. After taking on his present role last December he oversaw the Croatians’ qualification for this year’s World Championship.