ZAKSA regain Polish champions’ crown

Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle triumphed with their ninth national championship title in Poland after a straight-set away victory at Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj on Saturday to close the PlusLiga final playoff at three wins to one.

By reclaiming the crown from Jastrzebski, who took it away from them last year, and winning the national cup in February, ZAKSA celebrated a domestic golden double, before the chance to add a third trophy to their collection this season in the CEV Champions League final against Italy’s Itas Trentino next Sunday.

Historically, the club from Kedzierzyn-Kozle had already won two national championships (1998 and 2000) when the professional Polish volleyball league was established at the turn of the century. They also won the first three editions of the league in 2001, 2002 and 2003. ZAKSA have dominated Polish volleyball in recent years claiming four of the last six titles, in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022.

The championship series between ZAKSA and Jastrzebski started on May 4 with a 3-0 (25-21, 27-25, 25-23) home victory for the team from Kedzierzyn-Kozle on a 15-point match high by their outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk and a 13-point contribution from opposite Lukasz Kaczmarek. A hard-fought five set battle in the second game in Jastrzebie-Zdroj ended at 3-2 (20-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-12, 18-16) ZAKSA’s way. Kaczmarek (19 points) and Semeniuk (18) were once again the team’s leading scorers, while Jastrzebski’s outside Tomasz Fornal topped the charts with 22 points.

Olympic champ Benjamin Toniutti and his Jastrzebski Wegiel teammates struck back in game three with a 3-1 (26-24, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22) away victory at Hala Azoty to stay alive in the series. Another French international, Trevor Clevenot led the way with 13 points, while Semeniuk was the match top scorer with 20 points for the home team. The Polish international hammered another match high of 19 points in the fourth game as ZAKSA mastered a 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-21) shutout of their hosts to close the series and celebrate as national champions. His cross-court teammate Aleksander Sliwka added another 15 points. Middle blocker David Smith registered an 80% success rate in attack while his fellow American, libero Erik Shoji successfully dealt with 67% of the opponent serves directed at him.

The PlusLiga bronze went to Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, who claimed their best-of-five third place playoff against PGE Skra Belchatow by three wins to one, with three of the games decided in tie-breakers.

The two teams exchanged 3-2 away victories in the first two matches. Aluron then shut out their hosts in the third match in Belchatow and won again at home in Friday's fourth game, again in five sets. On a 28-point match high by Dawid Konarski, including five aces, the squad from Zawiercie celebrated with a 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-11) victory to claim the first national championship medal in the club’s history.