Norwid drop another sensational upset in Poland

Just as PGE Projekt Warsaw had scored an important win over a powerful opponent and overtaken them to the second place in the Polish PlusLiga standings, here comes Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa! The dream killer that has been making headlines with their huge upsets of big opponents this season took its turn on the Warsaw squad and beat them at their house, bringing them back down to third place, as the eight matches of the 10^th leg took place from Friday to Monday.

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Spearheaded by Czech opposite Patrik Indra, Most Valuable Player and best scorer of the match with 26 points, and Iranian outside and captain Milad Ebadipour with another 22, Norwid produced a sensational 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21) away victory over mighty Projekt. German opposite Linus Webber was the home team’s leading scorer with 21 points. The squad from Czestochowa improved to 18 points and a 7-3 win-loss record, and kept their sixth place in the current standings. Meanwhile, Projekt dropped back to third place on 23 and 8-2.

In the previous match on Saturday, BOGDANKA LUK Lublin, who had suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Projekt the week before, secured a 3-1 (21-18, 21-25, 25-20, 25-23) home win over Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin and regained their position above the rivals from Warsaw in the table, in second place on 25 and 9-1. Lublin’s outside Mikolaj Sawicki and opposite Kewin Sasak were the best scorers of the match with 17 points each. Nowak-Mosty stayed in 13^th place on 7 and 2-7.

However, the two teams just below them in the table managed to score second wins over the weekend to make things around the relegation cut-off line much more interesting. On Friday, Ukraine’s Barkom Kazhany Lviv managed a 3-2 (25-19, 13-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-10) win over visiting Trefl Gdansk with a 21-point match high from outside hitter Ilia Kovalov to improve to 5 and 2-7. On 11 and 3-7, Trefl occupy 11^th place.

On the following day, in a direct battle between the two bottom-placed teams in the PlusLiga, Indykpol AZS Olsztyn celebrated a 3-1 (25-20, 25-22, 24-26, 25-11) win at GKS Katowice. With the three points gained, Indykpol overtook Barkom to the 14^th place on 6 and 2-7, while making GKS’s bad situation even worse, 16^th place on 3 and 1-9. Czech opposite Jan Hadrava topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 18 points for the team from Olsztyn.

Back to the high end of the table, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie kept their fourth place, now on 22 and 7-3, after an emphatic 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-20) shutout of PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow at home. Opposite Karol Butryn led the way with 16 points for the winners. SKRA dropped two spots down the table, to ninth place on 14 and 5-4.

ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle also kept their fifth place after winning on the road, 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21) at PSG Stal Nysa. Their opposite Mateusz Recko put away the match high of 21 points. ZAKSA stand on 20 and 6-4, while Stal are now very dangerously close to the relegation zone, in 12^th place on 8 and 2-7.

On Sunday, Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski produced an away upset of Asseco Resovia Rzeszow in a five-set saga. They squeezed out a 3-2 (33-35, 25-18, 29-31, 25-17, 15-13) victory, which helped them jump over their opponent in the current standings and occupy seventh place on 15 and 6-4, leaving Resovia in eighth on 15 and 4-6.

In the last match of the leg, played on Monday evening, defending champions and table leaders Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj came back from a set down against visiting Slepsk Malow Suwalki to claim a 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-19) victory and improve to 28 and 9-1, three points clear of BOGDANKA. Slepsk are 10^th on 11 and 4-5. Jastrzebski Wegiel’s outside Tomasz Fornal and opposite Lukasz Kaczmarek shared the top scorer honours of the match with 17 points apiece.

The 11^th leg will get underway as soon as Thursday, November 7, and continue until Monday, November 11.

PlusLiga 2024-2025 11th leg:
Nov 7, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin v PSG Stal Nysa
Nov 8, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa v BOGDANKA LUK Lublin
Nov 8, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Indykpol AZS Olsztyn v PGE Projekt Warsaw
Nov 9, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle v Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj
Nov 9, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Slepsk Malow Suwalki v Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
Nov 9, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow v Barkom Kazhany Lviv
Nov 10, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Trefl Gdansk v Asseco Resovia Rzeszow
Nov 11, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski v GKS Katowice

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