The 34th women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup arrives in Swarzędz on Friday with Poland hosting the event for the first time with eight teams going for glory.
It follows the classic format with two initial groups of four from which the top two advance to the semi-finals and the bottom two go into the relegation Pool C.
Each game will be broadcast live on www.eurohockeytv.org for free for registered users of the website.
Today, we find out more about the teams in Pool A of the competition including two former champions and the host club.
Pool A
MSC Sumchanka (UKR)
Appearances: 13
Best performance: Winners (2025)
The champions of 2025, MSC Sumchanka continue to be the standard-bearers in Ukraine and will hope to be in the shake-up for the medals once again.
Olha Goncharenko – their most experienced player – has returned from maternity leave; Karyna Leonova has repeatedly became the top scorer of international competitions and Valeriia Zaitseva – the newly-named team captain, has a lot of playing practice and experience.
Kateryna Popova, Anastasia Shyshyna, Anna Tanchenko and Veronika Movchan are also players to have played with the youth and national teams, picking up medals at various competitions.
Indeed, most played as part of the national team of Ukraine at the European Championship in Czechia in January which became a key preparation along with a training camp in December in Lithuania, daily indoor training and a gym once a week.
“Hockey is not just a sport, it’s a family” says the head coach Svitlana Makaeva of their team’s outlook, adding that most of the panel have mothers or close relatives who also played hockey in the past, which is how this group also started playing.
Mannheimer HC (GER)
Appearances: 2
Best performance: Winners (2017)
The 2017 champions are looking to improve on their fourth place from last year in Šiauliai, a position they also finished in the German indoor championships this season.
Charlotte Gerstenhöfer was a crucial part of the international side who won the EuroHockey Indoor Championship in January in Prague where she was joined in the side Linda Bens and Lisa Mayerhöfer.
The panel also has outdoor internationals like Stine Kurz, Aina Lilly Kresken and Anissa Korth.
UKS Swarek Swarzędz (POL)
Appearances: debut
UKS SP5 Swarek Swarzędz (pictured above) has won the last two indoor national championships following a rapid rise since introducing women’s hockey to the club in 2021.
They have done it with a mostly homegrown panel who have been part of the club since they began their girls youth section. As such, their panel is a very young one with only two players from their long list aged over 22.
The key players are: Marta Czujewicz (captain), Maria Drozda, Jagoda Arciszewska, Patrycja Kosińska and Julia Rymer who all have international experience either at European Championships or in international clubs. Indeed, Czujewicz and Arciszewska were part of the World Cup gold medal winning side.
“If it hurts, it grows” is coach Pawel Bratkowski’s motto for the team. He leads the coaching team for this event, taking on the role held by his wife following the birth of their child.
Swarek won this year’s Indoor National Championship in Poland and so are assured of a return to European action in 2027.
Waterloo Ducks (BEL)
Appearances: 2
Best performance: 5th (2025)
Six-time Belgian champions Waterloo Ducks are making their third appearance in the top division and looking to build on their fifth place a year ago in Šiauliai.
Daphne Gose has won those six titles in and is in the national indoor team along with France De Mot, Charlotte Vander Gracht and Vivienne De Jonghe who all played in the Indoor Red Panthers side that finished in fifth place in the EuroHockey Indoor Championship.
The Ducks won back the Belgian title when they won their final over Royal Léopold two weekends ago.
