Race for remaining PlusLiga playoff spots heats up

The 26^th leg of men’s volleyball PlusLiga action in Poland is about to unfold from Friday, March 13, to Monday, March 16. It is the last leg of the regular season numerically, but not chronologically, as some delayed games from previous legs, as well as the entire 14^th leg, are yet to be played before the regular season is wrapped up. Of course, Friday’s remake of last season’s championship final between BOGDANKA LUK Lublin and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie is the highest-profile match on the leg’s program, but with the regular season winners and another four sure quarterfinalists, as well as the team to be relegated, already known, the spotlight now is mainly on the three remaining vacancies in the playoffs, with four teams – PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow, JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj, Energa Trefl Gdansk and ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle – in contention to get them, each with three games to play.

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PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow edged ahead in that four-way race and are currently in sixth place in the current standings on 38 points and a 13-10 win-loss record. They have a tough home encounter with PGE Projekt Warsaw, placed second on 48 and 17-7. The match at the Energia hall will serve off at 14:45 local time (13:45 UTC) on Sunday. Earlier this season, Projekt registered two home wins over SKRA, by 3-1 in a PlusLiga match and by 3-0 in a Poland Cup quarterfinal.

JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj stand seventh, two points behind SKRA, on 36 and 13-10. They will entertain Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski on Saturday at 14:45 (13:45). Cuprum Stilon are in the “comfort zone” between 10^th and 13^th place, where the teams no longer have a shot at the playoffs or face a threat from relegation. The team from Gorzow Wielkopolski is in 11^th place on 24 and 7-16. In December’s game between the two teams, Jastrzebski Wegiel brought home a four-set road win.

Energa Trefl Gdansk are the team currently hanging on to the edge of the playoff zone, occupying eighth place on 34 and 12-11. On Saturday, at 20:00 (19:00), they will welcome relegation-bound Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa to the Ergo Arena. Steam are stuck at the bottom of the table, in 14^th place on 16 and 4-20. Trefl hammered out a straight-set shutout of their opponents, when they visited Czestochowa in December.

ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle are trailing in that four-way race. They are currently below the playoff zone, one point behind Trefl, in ninth place on 33 and 10-13. ZAKSA will play on the road this “weekend”. In Friday’s leg opener at 17:30 (16:30), they will visit PlusLiga rookies InPost ChKS Chelm, running second from the bottom, in 13^th place on 23 and 7-17, having already secured their second season among Poland’s elite. When Chelm travelled to Kedzierzyn-Kozle in December, they surprised ZAKSA with a 3-1 upset.

Last season’s PlusLiga runners-up and this season’s bronze medalists of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie have already secured pole position for the playoffs as regular season winners. They are unreachable on top of the table on 56 and 19-5. For the remaining quarterfinalists below them, however, it is still important to chase the best possible positions in the playoff bracket. Among them are defending champions BOGDANKA LUK Lublin, who will host Aluron at the Globus on Friday evening at 20:00 (19:00). Currently, BOGDANKA are in third place on 47 and 16-7, with a game in hand compared to second-placed Projekt. The rivals from Lublin and Zawiercie are on a six-game winning streak between the PlusLiga and the CEV Champions League and, for one of them, this streak will be interrupted on Friday. When they met in December, they put up a five-set battle with Aluron celebrating a home victory.

The other two teams already qualified for the quarterfinals – table neighbors Asseco Resovia Rzeszow and Indykpol AZS Olsztyn – will meet head to head in the leg’s closing match on Monday. Resovia will entertain Indykpol at the Podpromie, starting at 17:30 (16:30). The hosts are fifth on 43 and 15-8, with a game in hand compared to their visitors, who stand fourth on 45 and 16-8. As these two teams are potential rivals in the quarterfinals, the home-court advantage in that playoff is what seems to be at stake in Monday’s game. When they met in December, Indykpol capitalized on the home-court advantage with a 3-1 win.

In a fixture between two teams from the “comfort zone”, Ukraine’s Barkom Kazhany Lviv, standing in 12^th place on 23 and 8-15, will host Slepsk Malow Suwalki, 10^th on 26 and 7-17, in Elblag on Sunday at 20:00 (19:00). Slepsk Malow won the first match with Barkom Kazhany this season by 3-1.

PlusLiga 2025-2026 26^th leg:
Mar 13, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): InPost ChKS Chelm v ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle
Mar 13, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): BOGDANKA LUK Lublin v Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
Mar 14, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj v Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski
Mar 14, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): Energa Trefl Gdansk v Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa
Mar 15, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow v PGE Projekt Warsaw
Mar 15, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): Barkom Kazhany Lviv v Slepsk Malow Suwalki
Mar 16, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Asseco Resovia Rzeszow v Indykpol AZS Olsztyn

PlusLiga 2025-2026 schedule and results

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