Four exciting five-setters decorate PlusLiga weekend in Poland

As many as four of the seven matches of the sixth leg in Poland’s men’s volleyball PlusLiga played from Saturday to Monday produced thrilling five-set battles and exciting results. Asseco Resovia Rzeszow remained undefeated after emerging victorious at BOGDANKA LUK Lublin, Slepsk Malow Suwalki celebrated their first victory of the season and left rivals Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski still winless, JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj took revenge from Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie for the defeat in the five-set CEV Champions League semifinal, while ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle coped with their spirited Ukrainian visitors Barkom Kazhany Lviv in the tie-breaker.

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On Sunday afternoon, Asseco Resovia Rzeszow mounted a heroic comeback from two sets down at reigning Polish champions and super cup laureates BOGDANKA LUK Lublin to squeeze out a narrow 3-2 (20-25, 19-25, 25-13, 25-22, 15-13) victory, stay on as the only unbeaten team in the league and hand the crown holders their third consecutive loss. On 13 points and a 5-0 win-loss record, Resovia are third in the current standings, with fewer matches played than the two teams above them. Lublin are in sixth place on 10 and 3-3. Opposite Karol Butryn contributed a match-high 27 points to the victory. He raised four kill blocks and hit 25 points in attack at a 61% success rate. Canadian middle blocker Danny Demyanenko spiked with an 87% success and put up three blocking points to finish with a total of 16 on the way to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) recognition. His counterpart and compatriot Fynnian McCarthy impressed with five aces for the home team, while opposite Kewin Sasak was BOGDANKA’s most prolific scorer with 18 points.

The sixth leg was completed on Monday evening with a rollercoaster clash between the two winless teams at the bottom of the table. The visiting side, Slepsk Malow Suwalki, pushed up from the last place in the standings with a nail-biting 3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 26-28, 29-27, 15-13) victory over hosts Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski. Opposite and captain Bartosz Filipiak led the winners with a match-high 31 points, including five aces and two blocks, to claim the MVP honors. Cuprum Stilon were spearheaded by French outside hitter Mathis Henno with 29 points, including three aces and a block. Slepsk Malow climbed two spots up the table, to 12^th place on 3 and 1-5. With the point earned, Cuprum Stilon also surpassed InPost ChKS Chelm to keep their 13^th place on 3 and 0-6.

In another rollercoaster five-setter, JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj celebrated a 3-2 (25-16, 24-26, 19-25, 25-23, 15-11) away victory over Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, one of the teams set to represent Europe in next month’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in Brazil, to improve to 7 and 3-2 in eighth place. After conceding their second defeat of the season in seven matches played, Aluron dropped to second place on 15 points. Masterfully steered by French setter and match MVP Benjamin Toniutti, five Jastrzebski players reached the double digits in scoring, led by German middle blocker Anton Brehme with 16 points, including four aces and two blocks. The other middle, Lukasz Usowicz, registered a 100% success rate in attack. Aluron’s American outside Aaron Russell emerged as the best scorer of the game with 19 points, including an ace and a block.

ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle and the only foreign team in the league, Barkom Kazhany Lviv, put up a five-set battle on Saturday evening. The spirited Ukrainian visitors came back from a set down twice during the match, but in the end, the home team snatched a 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-6) victory. Italian international Kamil Rychlicki led the winners with 18 points, including two aces, while the MVP award went to outside Szymon Jakubsziak, who spiked at a 60% success rate, put up five kill blocks and fired three aces towards a 17-point tally. Barkom Kazhany’s opposite Vasyl Tupchii produced a match-high 22 points, including four aces and a block. ZAKSA overtook Barkom Kazhany in the standings merely on point ratios and climbed to ninth place, while the Ukrainian team fell to 10^th. Both stand on 7 points, a 2-3 win-loss record and 11-11 in sets.

Indykpol AZS Olsztyn are the new table leaders. After a 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-22) shutout of Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa on the road, they surged to the top on 15 and 5-1, while Steam stayed 11^th on 3 and 1-4. Indykpol’s outside Pawel Halaba delivered four aces, two kill blocks and six successful swings to claim the MVP award, while his German cross-court teammate Moritz Karlitzek chipped in with a match-high 15 points.

Also playing on the road, PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow mastered a 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-15) sweep of their game at PlusLiga rookies InPost ChKS Chelm and pushed them down to the bottom of the standings, in 14^th place on 2 and 1-4, while themselves kept their fourth place, now on 12 and 4-1. Romanian outside Daniel Chitigoi was the best scorer of the match with 13 points for the winners, including two aces. He also impressed with a 79% success rate in attack. The MVP award went to SKRA’s setter Grzegorz Lomacz.

PGE Projekt Warsaw also got their job done in straight sets, but at home – 3-0 (33-31, 25-19, 25-22) over Energa Trefl Gdansk – to surpass Lublin into the fifth place on 12 and 4-2. Trefl stayed in seventh on 8 and 3-3. Outside hitter Bartosz Bednorz topped the match chart with 16 points, while his French cross-court teammate Kevin Tillie was named MVP.

Next on the PlusLiga agenda are the four midweek matches to be played on Tuesday, November 18, and Wednesday, November 19.

PlusLiga 2025-2026 upcoming matches:
Nov 18, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): InPost ChKS Chelm v Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa
Nov 18, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): Indykpol AZS Olsztyn v Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
Nov 19, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj v BOGDANKA LUK Lublin
Nov 19, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): Asseco Resovia Rzeszow v ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle

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