PlusLiga keeps rolling on Tuesday and Wednesday

The Polish PlusLiga will once again offer some exciting midweek matches this week, with one game on Tuesday, October 15, and another two on Wednesday, October 16.

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In a postponed fixture from the fourth leg of regular season play, ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle host Cuprum Stilon Gorzow at the Azoty hall on Tuesday, starting at 17:30 local time (15:30 UTC). Mighty ZAKSA, with a stellar squad featuring the likes of Eric Shoji, Marcin Janusz and David Smith, have had an on-and-off season so far, producing three wins and two losses and standing seventh on 10 points. Meanwhile, the three-match winning streak Cuprum are riding puts their underdog status in this match under question. Setter Vuk Todorovic, outside hitters Mathijs Desmet and Robert Taht, and their teammates are above ZAKSA in the current standings, also with 10 points, but on a 4-1 win-loss record.

The head-to-head record is heavily in favour of ZAKSA. Since 2014, when Cuprum Lubin joined the PlusLiga, the two clubs have met 22 times and the representatives of Kedzierzyn-Kozle have won 18 of these encounters. The last time Cuprum beat ZAKSA was in the 2021-2022 season, but in the four meetings that followed they managed to take only a set from the powerful opponents.

In another postponed fourth-leg fixture, PSG Stal Nysa will welcome Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa on Wednesday, also at 17:30 (15:30). Having won only one of their four matches so far this season, the hosts are in 13^th place on 4 points, just above the relegation zone, and will be in desperate need to capitalize on the home-court advantage and beat Iranian star Milad Ebdipour and the Norwid squad around him. The squad from Czestochowa have already made headlines with a couple of big upsets this season, but will need some more consistency in order to climb further above the ninth place they are currently in on 7 points and a 3-2 win-loss record and to play an important role in the race for the playoff spots.

Stal have a 4-3 advantage in head-to-head wins. In the only two of these seven encounters that were in PlusLiga matches, last season the club from Nysa celebrated a 3-0 win away and a 3-2 win at home.

Wednesday’s late game will actually give an early start to the seventh leg, the rest of which is to be played from Friday to Sunday. Starting at 20:30 (18:30), table leaders PGE Projekt Warsaw will entertain 10^th-placed Asseco Resovia Rzeszow at the Torwar hall in the Polish capital. Projekt are already one game ahead of the regular schedule and top the current standings on 18 points and a 6-1 win-loss record, two points above the only undefeated team in the league, BOGDANKA LUK Lublin (6-0). Now Kevin Tillie, Jakub Kochanowski, Artur Szalpuk and the rest of their impressive line-up will have an opportunity to further widen the gap at the top.

On the contrary, having played only five matches so far, Resovia have a game in hand. Polish internationals Bartosz Bednorz and Karol Klos, Slovenian stars Gregor Ropret and Klemen Cebulj, their French colleague Stephen Boyer and the rest of the Rzeszow team will have to push harder to improve on their 2-3 win-loss record and 7 points. All three of their losses have come at the hands of high-calibre rivals, but yet another opponent of that level is next on their agenda.

The two clubs met four times last season. After exchanging four-set away victories during the regular season, Projekt hammered out two shutouts of Resovia in their bronze medal playoff series.

PlusLiga 2024-2025 - upcoming midweek matches:
Oct 15, 17:30 local (15:30 UTC): ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle v Cuprum Stilon Gorzow
Oct 16, 17:30 local (15:30 UTC): PSG Stal Nysa v Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa
Oct 16, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): PGE Projekt Warsaw v Asseco Resovia Rzeszow

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