Lublin sweep short-handed Warsaw and return to the top

Reigning PlusLiga champions BOGDANKA LUK Lublin returned to the top of the standings in the 2025-2026 Polish League before the end of the first half of the regular season, thanks to a victory over a short-handed PGE Projekt Warsaw on Tuesday.

Playing at home against their direct rivals for the top spot in the standings, who were missing seven players, Lublin dominated the postponed match from the 12th leg of the first round of the regular season, triumphing 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-23) to extend their winning streak across national continental tournaments to eight matches.

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With the result, Lublin got to 30 points (ten wins, three losses) and passed Warsaw, which completed the first half of the season with the same campaign, but only 28 points accumulated.

With many of their players dealing with severe infections and fever symptoms, Warsaw made the trip to Lublin with only seven players available - among the absences were star middle blockers Jakub Kochanowski and Karol Kłos, outside hitter Bartosz Bednorz and German opposite Linus Weber. With only seven athletes available, head coach Tommi Tiilikainen had to play libero Damian Wojtaszek as an outside hitter, setter Michał Kozłowski as a middle blocker and outside hitter Brandon Koppers as an opposite.

Lublin took advantage of the situation and produced a solid three-set victory having opposite Mateusz Malinowski, with 17 points (15 kills, two aces), and outside hitter Jakub Wachnik, with 13 (12 kills, one block), as their leading scorers.

Warsaw, which put on a great effort considering their situation, had the match's top scorer in Koppers, who registered 18 points (15 kills, three blocks), and got another ten (eight kills, two blocks) from Wojtaszek.

"Today it wasn't about the points," Wojtasek said. "We wanted to play this match despite the situation. There were only seven of us, so some of us had to play different positions. It was a fight to survive, and we knew we couldn't have anyone injured, so we just gave up on some plays at the net to not risk anything. We did what we could, and I hope the fans enjoyed the match."

The other match of the day, also valid for the 12th leg of the first round of the regular season, had Indykpol AZS Olsztyn beating PlusLiga rookies InPost ChKS Chełm 3-2 (19-25, 15-25, 28-26, 25-20, 15-8) on the road. The result made the winners go from sixth to fourth in the table, with 27 points (nine wins, four losses), while the losers continue in 12th place, now with ten points (three wins, ten losses).

PlusLiga 2025-2026 schedule and results

With Polish Cup matches set to happen on December 29-30, the PlusLiga returns on January 2, with encounters of the second leg of the second round of the regular season - the first-leg matches were all postponed to March 21.

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