VOLLEYBALL

OK DINAMO IS THE NEW CROATIAN CHAMPION

tsg_news April 26, 2025

Croatia has new national champions, as OK Dinamo volleyball players won the final series 3-1 against Mladost. In the fourth match at Peščenica, Dinamo won 3:0 (20, 16, 16) after 84 minutes of play.

Mladost, obviously depleted of energy, did not enter the fourth play-off match at Peščenica with genuine enthusiasm; the home players of Dinamo showed much more aggression and a desire to win from the warm-up.

The home team came into the match better, in the first set they broke away with a 3-0 series to 10:7, and from then on they kept the score until the end, up to 25:20. A cheerful Babić has already scored 5 points, on the other hand, Pilepić is the most efficient with 4.

The second set completely exposed the volleyball players of Mladosta; they were unable to match the moody local players, who understood that they could turn this match into their first Croatian championship trophy in history. They still increased the rhythm, served brilliantly, and played actively in defense. They also had a +9 lead in this part of the game and finally won the set with a convincing 25:16. The Mladost Malević coach tried to put the players in a good mood through substitutions. Still, there was no honest reaction from the bench…

Mladostašica made mistake after mistake, while Dinamo became more and more miserable with every point won; they played more relaxed and, as a result, better. Already in the third set, Zorana, the home team, had a score advantage (12:8) and wisely maintained it until the end. By then, they already had 6 points with a serve, Mladost none, and that says something about the courage of the home team…

This rhythm was played until the end of the set, with a 25:19 smash by Babić, and for Dinamo, a convincing 3-0 victory, which secured the title of Croatian champion with a 3-1 series win.

In the end, the statistics will show that the Dinamo players had seven aces and seven blocks, while the Mladosta girls did not win a single point on serve and had eight blocks. In terms of points in the attack, Mladost is slightly better (38-36), but the number of errors reveals the reasons for Mladost’s defeat, with 25 errors against only 9 for Dinamo.

Igor Šimunčić, coach of Dinamo, with the gold around his neck, said: “This is the fruit of four years of work in which every day you knew what was going to be done tomorrow. It was not easy to lose the final, but for big things, you have to know how to wait, you have to stand in line. We were patient, and our effort paid off in the end. Today, our calmness and the fact that we wanted the title more throughout the series were decisive.”

Rade Malević, coach of Mladost, stated after the match: “Obviously, psychology ruled, there was a huge problem in our composition, but it probably goes with experience, because compared to Dinamo, we are still more inexperienced. I don’t have an answer to so many of our mistakes, that’s a matter for a longer analysis.”

The gold medals were hung around the necks of Dinamo volleyball players by HOS director Valentina Bifflin, and HOS president Frane Žanić presented the winner’s cup.