Just two days after handing their “poor” visitors Barkom Kazhany Lviv, placed bottom of the table at the time without any points, their first win of the season, Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa took the opportunity to “refill” from another “rich” powerhouse as they visited Asseco Resovia Rzeszow on Tuesday, thus continuing their Robin Hood story. After stunning mighty opponents like ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle and defending champions Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj in five sets each earlier this season, Norwid added Resovia to their impressive booty in one of the four eighth-leg matches played over the last couple of days. To make the story even more dramatic, the squad from Czestochowa denied a double opponent match point at 24-22 in set four, before turning the course of the game their way again.
Norwid’s Robin Hood story continues…
Recap of this week’s PlusLiga eighth-leg matches
Published 05:40, 24 Oct 2024
Patrik Indra in attack (photo: Arkadiusz Modlinski / plusliga.pl)
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Engaging in a spectacular scoring race with his French counterpart on Resovia’s side Stephen Boyer, Norwid’s Czech opposite Patrik Indra hammered out a match-high 28 points towards his team’s 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 15-25, 30-28, 15-12) victory to the disappointment of the 2,300 home fans on the stands at the iconic Podpromie. Indra spiked 25 points at a 56% success rate in attack and added three kill blocks to his tally to claim the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the match. His Iranian teammate, outside hitter and captain Milad Ebadipur, contributed another 17 points. Middle blockers Sebastian Adamczyk (two aces, six stuffs!) and Daniel Popela added 12 points each, while the other outside, Bartlomiej Lipinski, finished with 10. Resovia’s Boyer fired as many as six aces to tally a total of 26 points, supported by outsides Bartosz Bednorz with 21 (three aces, three stuffs) and Lukas Vasina with 16.
After this successful trip, Norwid are up in seventh place on 12 points and a 5-3 win-loss record. Despite the loss, the one point earned lifted Resovia one position up the current standings, to ninth place on 9 and 2-5.
“We are happy with the victory and the two valuable points. Every victory is special for us,” Indra told plusliga.pl after the match. “In this fourth set with Asseco Resovia, when the result was already unfavourable for us, we showed that we never give up. We work hard as a team and the most important thing is that we fight until the end. When it comes to my game, I think it was not my best performance at all. First of all, the opponents blocked me too often and I know that I have to improve. Maybe the effectiveness of my attack was generally high, but I am not completely satisfied with myself, because I can do better.”
“We played poorly today. This result is definitely not good,” said Resovia’s Slovenian setter Gregor Ropret. “We need to work more on our reception and our serving. We were aware that our opponents would have nothing to lose and would come here to play with a big risk. And so they did. This is definitely a very difficult moment for all of us. We knew how important this match was for us. I don't think we have a problem with our physical condition. We have more of a mental problem, because in such situations we should play better and with more concentration. Sooner or later, however, this card should turn and we should also have some good luck.”
BOGDANKA LUK Lublin continued their faultless run since the start of the season. In Wednesday’s late game, they mastered a home shutout of ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle to add the eighth victory in eight matches to their record and climb to the top of the table on 22 points, surpassing previous leaders PGE Projekt Warsaw, who are on 20 and 7-1. Outside hitter Wilfredo Leon put away five aces and two blocks, while spiking at a 62% success rate to finish with a match-high 17 points towards the 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-20) sweep, while the MVP award went to setter Marcin Komenda. Opposite Mateusz Recko was ZAKSA’s most prolific player with 16 points. The team from Kedzierzyn-Kozle stayed in sixth place on 14 and 4-4.
Jastrzebski Wegiel also surpassed Projekt in the standings. After a 3-1 (29-27, 28-30, 25-20, 25-13) home victory over Trefl Gdansk on Wednesday, the champions also collected 22 points, but stand second on a 7-1 win-loss record. Trefl stayed in 11th place on 8 and 2-6. Outside Tomasz Fornal was the best scorer and the MVP of the match with 22 points for the winners.
In Tuesday’s late game, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie produced an emphatic 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-21) shutout of visitors Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski. Their opposite Karol Butryn led the way with 14 points, including three aces, and earned the MVP nomination, while his Brazilian counterpart Chizoba Neves delivered a match-high 17 points for Cuprum. Fourth-placed Aluron improved to 18 and 6-2, while the team from Gorzow Wielkopolski dropped to eighth place on 10 and 4-4.
While the remaining three matches of the eighth leg are scheduled in November, the ninth leg is coming up with eight matches spread over five days from Friday, October 25, to Tuesday, October 28.
PlusLiga 2024-2025 9th leg:
Oct 25, 20:30 local (18:30 UTC): Slepsk Malow Suwalki v PSG Stal Nysa
Oct 26, 14:45 local (12:45 UTC): PGE Projekt Warsaw v BOGDANKA LUK Lublin
Oct 27, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Indykpol AZS Olsztyn v Asseco Resovia Rzeszow
Oct 27, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Trefl Gdansk v Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
Oct 27, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa v GKS Katowice
Oct 28, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow v Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj
Oct 28, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski v Barkom Kazhany Lviv
Oct 29, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle v Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin
