Slovakia made their World League debut in 2014 and, after losing three matches and winning three in Pool G, they qualified for Group 3's Final Four. After losing their semifinal in straight sets to Turkey, they lost the third-place match 3-1 to China. This year there is less pressure on Flavio Gulinelli's men, who know they will again be in the Final Four as they are hosting the event in Bratislava in early July. Now ranked joint-34th in the FIVB world rankings, they will play China, Mexico and Greece in Pool G.
Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia have not competed at the World Championship or Olympic Games. They have been regular competitors in continental tournaments and the team has recently shown an encouraging improvement. They won the European League in 2008 and 2011, and finished third in 2007 and 2014 when the honour was split with Macedonia. At the 2011 European Championship the team, mentored by coach Emanuele Zanini, finished fifth. In 2013 they narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2014 World Championship. A victory against Greece raised hopes that they could qualify for the first time, but a 3-0 defeat by Ukraine meant Slovakia needed to beat Finland to make the cut. In a close match they lost 3-2, losing the final set 15-10.