Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, participants in next month’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in Brazil, emerged on top of the table on 12 and 4-1 after their 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-22) home win over PlusLiga rookies InPost ChKS Chelm on Saturday. Aluron, however, have already played five matches, one more than most other PlusLiga teams. Chelm are third from the bottom, in 12th place on 2 and 1-3. American outside Aaron Russell, who played only during the first two sets of the match, produced a team-high nine points towards Aluron’s victory, all in swings at an 82% success rate. His Portuguese teammate, setter Miguel Tavares, earned the MVP award. Chelm’s Iranian outside Amirhossein Esfandiar was the only player to reach the double digits in the match, topping the charts with 11 points.
In the weekend’s closing match on Sunday evening, Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa and Slepsk Malow Suwalki put up a five-set battle, which went 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-12) the way of the home team from Czestochowa, for whom it was the first win of the season. The MVP recognition in this game also went to a setter, Steam’s legendary Argentinean playmaker Luciano De Cecco. Under his direction, the team registered a 57% success rate in attack and all five of his starter teammates reached the double digits in scoring, spearheaded by Czech opposite Patrik Indra with 24 points. His counterpart Bartosz Filipiak led Slepsk Malow with 21 points. Steam rose to 11th place on 3 and 1-3, while Slepsk Malow remained winless in 13th place on 1 and 0-4.
