20 Oct 2023
Super League Round 2 preview: Lionhearts hope to roar in top flight
Having dominated the London League for some time, the club decided it was time to test themselves against the best the rest of the country had to offer, and so entered the National Volleyball League for the 2018-19 season.
Starting at the bottom of the pyramid, they won promotion from Division Three South East at the first attempt and repeated the trick in 2019-20.
The Pandemic then intervened to halt the Shoreditch-based club’s progress in 2020-21 and, upon the restart, they were unable to climb straight out of Division 1.
However, last season was more successful as they beat the University of Nottingham in the Super League/Division One play-off (though the East Midlands club were eventually reprieved anyway after London Orcas did not take their place).
It means the 2023-24 season will see the Lionhearts launch an exciting new chapter in its history as a Super League Club – and it is one the players are determined to enjoy.
At Super League Opening Weekend last weekend, the top-flight newcomers put in a wholehearted display in a thoroughly entertaining match against Darkstar Derbyshire.
And while they came up just short in the end, losing in four highly competitive sets (25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 28-26), they showed plenty of promise and that they will give plenty of the nation’s best a run for their money over the coming weeks and months.
Captain Gloria Francalanci, who plays as a middle, was certainly encouraged by what she saw from her team-mates and hopes the club’s upward trajectory can continue with a successful first season at Super League level.
“We definitely have a strong team bond in our favour because we have been playing together for about three years now, and some of us for longer than that,” she said.
“We have had some new players join, but they have slotted into the team and what we are trying to create quite easily. Already, in that first game last weekend, you could see they were getting on the same wavelength.
“Every team that goes up a league needs to adjust and that’s especially true when you are going into Super League. It takes a little time to get used to the new level.
“But you can see already that we are not too far apart, even if there are things we need to work on.
“When we started out in the NVL, we knew we had a capable team from how we were performing in London and the goal was always clear... that we wanted to get into the top division.
“After the successive promotions, it was a bit tougher in Division 1, but we enjoyed that challenge and now we are ready for a new one in the Super League.”
Hailing from Italy, Gloria, has been playing volleyball from a young age – her dad also enjoyed playing the sport – and first came to the UK as part of the Erasmus Education Programme, turning out for UCL.
After returning home to complete her studies, she moved back to London and has since become central to the Lionhearts’ success.
Other key players, she explains, joined on the return to post-Covid action in September 2021 and she feels that the make-up of the squad works well.
Gloria added: “I think that we are lucky to have found each other and have been able to come together and play in this team.
“We all have different characters, but, when we get together on a court, we seem to complement each other and it works well.
“Our current coach is also a big influence, joining around the same time as some of the current players just after Covid when we were rebuilding them team, and we hope to show people what we are capable of during the season.”
Stepping up to Super League has seen the Lionhearts overhaul their training schedule so that they now train twice a week, as opposed to once previously.
That has impacted on the availability of some players, but Gloria believes it is a necessary step if they are to protect their new, hard-earned status as one of the nation’s premier clubs.
“All the other teams at the club train only once a week and that’s what we were doing last season, but we knew we had to make the change if we wanted to have a good season,” she said.
“In some cases, it has meant people have had to make sacrifices, but it has been do-able and we hope it will make a difference.
“What we did do is give people plenty of notice and say that this is what we would be doing at the end of last season. We gave those who couldn’t do it the chance to stay and those who have been able to have taken it on.”
Following on from their opening encounter with Darkstar, the Lionhearts travel to Cambridge ARU tomorrow (1pm start at North Cambridge Academy).
It will be an intriguing contest against a side who also lost at Opening Weekend, but who put in a good show against last season’s champions, Durham Palatinates, taking a set off them, before going down 25-19, 25-22, 26-24, 25-16.
Gloria said: “We took part in a tournament in September in the lead-up to the season alongside Cambridge, so we do have a little personal experience, rather than just relying on video and not knowing much about them as was the case with Darkstar.
“But we are aware that they may not have been trying to the same extent they would do for a league game, and that not all of their top players would have been playing.
“Both sides will want to bounce back with a win – and we hope that can be us.”
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