Slovenia have been the sensation of the last few years, claiming the silver medal at the 2015 European Championship after beating reigning world champions Poland 3-2 in the quarterfinals and Italy 3-1 in the semifinals before going down to France in the final 3-0.
They followed that with their World League debut in 2016, immediately qualifying for the Final Four, where they beat Greece 3-0 in the semifinals and knocked out Germany 3-1 in the final in Frankfurt to gain promotion to Group 2 for 2017.
Their only previous international successes had been a gold medal in the European League in 2015, following two bronze medals in 2011 and 2014. Their 2017 World League appearance will be only their second in the history of the competition.