ZAKSA stunned at home, handed first defeat of the season

Shortly after lifting the national cup trophy on Sunday, reigning European club champions Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle suffered an unexpected blow in the Polish PlusLiga. In Wednesday’s midweek fixture, Cerrad Enea Czarni Radom, a team from the lower third of the table, handed ZAKSA their first defeat of the league season and did so at the opponents’ nest in Kedzierzyn-Kozle.

With a solid performance by middle blocker Michael Parkinson, the squad from Radom celebrated a 3-1 (18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-19) away victory, their seventh in 20 matches since the start of the PlusLiga season, that lifted them to the 11th place in the current standings. It was a historic win for Cerrad Czarni as they had never defeated ZAKSA since returning to the top division in 2013.

The Dutch international registered a 71% success rate in attack to spike 10 kills, in addition to scoring three blocks and an ace, towards a 14-point match tally. His teammate, Polish outside Pawel Rusin, produced the match high of 20 points and received the MVP nomination.

Neither the prolific serving of Polish national team stars Norbert Huber (four aces) and Kamil Semeniuk (three aces), nor opposite Lukasz Kaczmarek’s leading score of 17 points on ZAKSA’s side were sufficient to help the team prevent the loss.

ZAKSA had been undefeated in the first 17 matches since the start of the PlusLiga season. They also took the national cup with three wins in three matches. They are in the middle of a successful CEV Champions League season, having already progressed to the semifinals in their quest to defend their continental crown. Despite this unexpected loss, coach Gheorghe Cretu’s team are still on top of the standings on a 17-1 win-loss record, 49 points and a game in hand, compared to second-placed Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj (16-3, 49).

In another PlusLiga match, played on Wednesday, Projekt Warsaw claimed a 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-23, 25-20) away win over Cuprum Lubin with former Serbian international Dusan Petkovic leading the team’s scorers with 16 points. Project stand sixth on 11-9 and 32 points, while Cuprum are in the penultimate 13th place on 5-16 and 19.