Lvi Prague Women

Jakub Ihnát arrived at VK Lvi Praha, and the runners-up finish that followed, behind the Extraliga's crown-holders in the 2021/2022 season, remains the closest the women's team has come to a title. He has not managed to add a Czech Cup to that yet — the men's side at the club already holds one, but the women's team has not won one either.

The Lionesses, as Lvi Praha's women are known, trace back to 1991, when the club was registered under a different name, VolleyTeam ČZU Praha, before the Lvi name took over. Home matches are played at the UNYP Arena in Libeň, a hall watching volleyball, a modest setting that has not stopped the club from being talked about as a side capable of pushing for the top of the table rather than just staying in it.

Alongside Ihnát, the club also points to Martin Tibitanzl among the names supporters associate with its recent identity, a link built more on continuity than on silverware.

What Lvi Praha have not settled into is a fixed enemy. There is no derby stamped onto the calendar the way there is at some Extraliga clubs; instead the season is shaped by recurring meetings with VK Prostějov, VK Dukla Liberec, VK Šelmy Brno and Volejbal Brno, the four sides the table keeps putting in front of them, and against whom the 2022 runners-up finish still has to be repeated before anyone starts calling it a rivalry.