Change of guard in Poland! Lublin suffer first loss, Jastrzebski take over

After five days of action, the ninth leg in the Polish PlusLiga regular season is now complete and the current standings have a new leader. Defending champions Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj took advantage of BOGDANKA LUK Lublin’s first loss of the season to climb to the top of the table.

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Jastrzebski Wegiel celebrated a 3-1 (25-19, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21) away victory over PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow to improve to 25 points and an 8-1 win-loss record and occupy the first place, while pushing the opponents down to seventh on 14 and 5-3. Jastrzebski’s outside hitter Tomasz Fornal led the team with 17 points. He scored two aces and a kill block and spiked at a 61% success rate to earn the Most Valuable Player nomination. His Argentinean cross-court teammate Luciano Vicentin (with an impressive five aces in the match), opposite Lukasz Kaczmarek and middle blocker Norbert Huber also reached the double digits with 16, 15 and 12 points, respectively. SKRA’s Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad was the best scorer of the game with 22 points to his name.

In the big match of the leg, PGE Projekt Warsaw handed BOGDANKA LUK Lublin their first loss of the season. After a 3-1 (21-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-21) home win, the squad from the capital climbed up to second place on 23 and 8-1 and left Lublin in third on 22 and 8-1. Projekt’s German opposite Linus Weber fired as many as six aces to finish on a match-high 22 points and claim the MVP award. Outside Artur Szalpuk put away another three aces towards a 16-point tally. On the other side of the net, outside Wilfredo Leon and opposite Kewin Sasak finished with 19 and 18 points, respectively.

In the only five-setter of the leg, Trefl Gdansk came back from a set down twice in their home match against Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie to celebrate a 3-2 (18-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 15-12) victory, with outside Jakub Czerwinski leading the way with 20 points, while opposite Jakub Jarosz fired five aces to finish with 19 points. Despite the loss, Aluron kept their fourth place in the standings, now on 19 and 6-3. Trefl also stayed in 11^th place, now on 10 and 3-6.

In the last match of the “weekend”, ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle hammered out a 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-22) shutout of Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin at home on Tuesday evening and ascended to fifth place on 17 and 5-4. Nowak-Mosty are 13^th on 7 and 2-6. ZAKSA’s outside Rafal Szymura and opposite Mateusz Recko shared the top-scorer honours with 14 points each, while the MVP recognition went to setter Marcin Janusz.

Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa also moved up a spot, to sixth place on 15 and 6-3, after a 3-1 (25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 25-21) home win over bottom-of-the-table GKS Katowice, who stand in 16^th place on 3 and 1-8. The two teams’ opposites, Patrik Indra and Bartosz Gomulka, jointly topped the scorers’ chart with 24 points apiece.

Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski continue to complete the top half of the table, standing eighth on 13 and 5-4. On Monday, with the help of a 26-point match high (including five aces) from Brazilian opposite Chizoba Neves, they produced a 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 26-24, 25-17) home win over Ukraine’s Barkom Kazhany Lviv, who remain within the relegation zone, in 14^th place on 3 and 1-7.

Just below them, also on 3 and 1-7, are Indykpol AZS Olsztyn. They lost to their visitors Asseco Resovia Rzeszow in a 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-18) straight-setter. Resovia’s outside Bartosz Bednorz was the best scorer of the match with 20 points. His team is still in ninth place, on 12 and 3-5, but this may change as soon as Wednesday, when they play their postponed match of the first leg. At 17:30 local time (16:30 UTC), Resovia will host PSG Stal Nysa, who are in 12^th place on 7 and 2-5 after losing their ninth-leg game to Slepsk Malow Suwalki. In Friday’s leg opener, led by opposite Bartosz Filipiak with a match-high 21 points, 10^th-placed Slepsk delivered a 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-12) home win over Stal to improve to 11 and 4-4.

After Wednesday’s postponed first-leg fixture, PlusLiga action will resume on Friday, November 1, with the start of the 10^th leg, which will end on Monday, November 4.

PlusLiga 2024-2025 1st leg:
Oct 30, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Asseco Resovia Rzeszow v PSG Stal Nysa

PlusLiga 2024-2025 10th leg:
Nov 1, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Barkom Kazhany Lviv v Trefl Gdansk
Nov 1, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): GKS Katowice v Indykpol AZS Olsztyn
Nov 2, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie v PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow
Nov 2, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): BOGDANKA LUK Lublin v Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin
Nov 2, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): PGE Projekt Warsaw v Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa
Nov 3, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): PSG Stal Nysa v ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle
Nov 3, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Asseco Resovia Rzeszow v Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski
Nov 4, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj v Slepsk Malow Suwalki

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