After the thrilling FIH Indoor World Cup, the indoor scene returns to the club game almost immediately with eight of Europe’s best teams competing for the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup in Siauliai, Lithuania.
The event runs from February 14 to 16 and initially features two pools of four from which the top two advance to the semi-finals while the other sides will fight to avoid the bottom two ranks and relegation.
Pool A features the host club Siauliai Ginstrektė-Akademija (Lithuania), Mannheimer HC (Germany), Sanse Complutense (Spain) and Waterloo Ducks (Belgium) with Pool B welcoming SCHC (Netherlands), MSC Sumchanka (Ukraine), Ege Yildizlari (Türkiye) and SK Slavia Prague (Czechia).
Each of the 20 matches will be streamed live on www.eurohockeytv.org with weekend passes for €7.99 or you can buy the 2025 Season Pass which brings you this event along with Easter’s Euro Hockey League and the EuroHockey Championships in August.
Today, we give an overview on the teams contesting Pool A when the action gets under way on Friday with Pool B to follow on Tuesday.
Pool A – team by team previews
Mannheimer HC (Germany)
Mannheim will play in the EuroHockey Club Cup for the second time, hoping they can emulate their previous performance when they won gold in Wettingen in 2017.
Two of this year’s panel panel were involved back then; Sonja Zimmerman and Nadine Kanler were both part of the side that played in that 2017 competition. Zimmerman was aged just 17 at the time but she has gone on to become one of Germany’s star players both indoor and out.
This year’s side is captained by Austrian international Fiona Felber who helped her side to World Cup silver last weekend in Poreč.
Carolina Seidel has been their chief goal-getter in the current season, netting 18 times with Zimmerman on eight and Charlotte Hendrix firing in eight times in their run to the 2025 German Bundesliga title.
Only twice since 1990 have German clubs not picked up gold at this event and Mannheimer HC will be keep to continue that proud record.
Sanse Complutense (Spain)
Sanse Complutense will feature in their second women’s EuroHockey Club Cup thanks to their 2024 Spanish championship success. They just missed out on making it back-to-back titles last weekend, however, in Terrassa when they fell to Club de Campo in the 2025 final with the game being decided by a shoot-out.
In normal time, Sara Carmona scored twice and she is one of seven players who can potentially return from last year’s fifth place finish in Alanya. She will hope to reprise her role of scoring in every game in 2024, ending with eight goals from six games.
Another star turn could be triple Olympian Lola Riera – she was a strong performer in Complu’s indoor season this year. Outdoors, she has scored nearly 150 international goals.
Waterloo Ducks (Belgium)
Waterloo Ducks travel to Siauliai with a large contingent hopping straight over from Poreč where they helped Belgium finish fifth in the FIH Indoor World Cup. They include Marie Ronquetti, goalkeeper Viviane de Jonghe, top goalscorer Daphné Gose, Joanne Peeters, Nahia Balon-Perin and Margaux Coudron.
For Waterloo, it is a return trip to Lithuania, a venue where they have fond memories having won the EuroHockey Club Trophy in 2020, edging out Rotweiss Wettingen and Slavia Prague in the playoff pool.
Morgane Vouche, Caroline Wagemans, Gose and Ronquetti straddle the two eras while they have an infusion of young talent since then with four teenagers joining their line-up.
Waterloo Ducks recently won their fifth Belgian women’s indoor title by beating Wellington in a shoot-out after regulation time ended 2-2.
Šiauliai Ginstrektė-Akademija (LTU)
The host club are the first Lithuanian side to play in the top division since 2016 following their silver medal last year in the Trophy in Skierniewice, Poland.
Nonetheless, there are still a number of links to that previous appearance – under the guise of Gintra Strekte University HC – with the timeless Donata Grigienė and Dovile Kuklienė continuing in their panel.
Grigienė has scored 33 goals in 27 European games, marking herself as one to watch in front of goal – she is also a valuable member of the club in general, coaching the men’s first team. Kuklienė was the top scorer in Poland.
They are likely to be the key players in defence and as creative influences in attack. An interesting fact about them is that they both have super sporty families, as Dovile’s husband is a professional football player and Donate’s husband plays rugby.
Ten of the side that earned the promotion remain with the panel for this year. On the flip side, one of their leaders, Samanta Jakovleva is on maternity vacation and will only be able to help her teammates as an assistant coach from the bench.
They are Lithuania’s most successful club and, in 2024, became outdoor champions for the 25th and indoor for the 19th time. Siauliai is also well used to hosting EuroHockey events and they welcomed the women’s Club Cup in 2015 but in a different hall to this edition.
“The girls are prepared and know that it is going to be difficult to play with such strong teams, nevertheless, looking forward to competing with Europe’s best,” said coach Vaidotas Vaičeliūnas.
