Polish champs upset in Czestochowa, Projekt take over top of standings

A new leader emerged after the fifth leg of Poland’s PlusLiga 2024-2025 regular season was played from Friday to Monday. Defending champions and previous table toppers Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj suffered an upset in a five-set battle at Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa, while PGE Projekt Warsaw took out national cup and national super cup holders Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie in straight sets and took over the first place in the current standings.

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In the last match on the fifth-leg programme, played on Monday evening in the Polish capital, Projekt delivered a 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-19) shutout of Aluron to improve their record to 15 points and a 5-1 win-loss record, i.e. two points clear of second-placed BOGDANKA LUK Lublin (5-0) and third-placed Jastrzebski Wegiel (4-1), who each have a game in hand, however.

Opposite Bartlomiej Boladz led the way with 19 points for Projekt and took the Most Valuable Player award, while outside hitters Kevin Tillie of France and Artur Szalpuk added 14 and 12 points, respectively, towards the victory. Opposite Karol Butryn, with 15 points, was the leading scorer for Aluron, who dropped to fifth place on 9 and 3-2.

“We definitely have to give the opponents credit for playing a great match,” Aluron’s Adrian Markiewicz told aluroncmc.pl. “We have our problems, but I think everyone in the league does. We do what we can to eliminate them and fight for more wins.”

In the leg’s only five-setter, hosts Norwid produced a 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-10) upset of Jastrzebski Wegiel on Saturday, their second win in only three matches played so far, which lifted them to 5 points in 10^th place. Meanwhile, it was the first setback for the defending champions since the start of the season. MVP Patrik Indra was the big hero for the home team. The Czech opposite hammered out an impressive 31 points, including four kill blocks, to power his team on the way to victory. Iranian outside Milad Ebadipour added another 19 points, while his cross-court teammate Bartlomiej Lipinski finished with 15. Polish international Lukasz Kaczmarek was Jastrzebski Wegiel’s top scorer with 21 points to his name.

Thus, BOGDANKA LUK Lublin remained the only undefeated team in the PlusLiga this season. On Saturday, they added the fifth win to their streak as they claimed a 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 27-25) home victory over Asseco Resovia Rzeszow. In front of over 4,200 spectators on the stands, Cuban-born Polish star Wilfredo Leon fuelled his team with a match-high 21 points, including five kill blocks and two aces. The MVP award went to the other outside on the winners’ squad, Dutchman Bennie Tuinstra, who scored 14 times. Their counterpart on the other side of the court, Bartosz Bednorz, was Resovia’s most prolific player with 18 points. The team from Rzeszow now dropped to 11^th place on 4 and 1-3.

“We knew we had a tough game ahead of us, but we were optimistic, because we entered the match undefeated and we can still be proud of that fact,” Tuinstra said in a plusliga.pl interview. “I think that each subsequent match is now more and more exciting and important for us in the context of the points we win. Against Asseco Resovia, we showed that our team can fight brilliantly. We finished important actions and scored points in decisive moments.”

PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow climbed a spot up the standings to fourth place on 11 and 4-1 after their 3-1 (28-26, 17-25, 25-19, 26-24) home win over Slepsk Malow Suwalki. Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad led SKRA’s scorers with 18 points, including the match winner. Slepsk dropped to eighth place on 6 and 2-3 and one of the two teams that surpassed them were ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle, who managed the only away victory of the leg. ZAKSA jumped five spots up to seventh place on 6 and 2-1 after mastering a 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-23) shutout of Trefl Gdansk to the disappointment of nearly five thousand fans on the stands of the iconic Ergo Arena. The match high of 21 points was authored by ZAKSA’s opposite Mateusz Recko.

Cuprum Stilon Gorzow also moved up the table, to sixth place on 8 and 3-1, after achieving a 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-21) home win over Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin in Friday’s leg opener. Belgian outside Mathijs Desmet was the best scorer of the match with 17 points for Cuprum.

Near the bottom of the table, Indykpol AZS Olsztyn produced a 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 26-24) sweep of their home game against PSG Stal Nysa, with a 15-point match high from Czech opposite Jan Hadrava, to register their first win of the season and improve to 12^th on 3 and 1-3. GKS Katowice also celebrated their first victory, 3-1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 25-22) at home over Barkom Kazhany Lviv, to push up from the last place and the leave their Ukrainian opponents there as the only winless team in the league so far. Tunisian outside Aymen Bouguerra led the squad from Katowice with 21 points.

Next on the PlusLiga programme, there is some midweek action. In a postponed second-leg match, ZAKSA will host Norwid on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, Nowak-Mosty will welcome Indykpol in a fourth-leg fixture.

PlusLiga 2024-2025 - upcoming midweek matches:
Oct 8, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle v Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa
Oct 9, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin v Indykpol AZS Olsztyn

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