Slepsk Malow mount thrilling turnaround against ZAKSA

The 21^st leg of the men’s volleyball PlusLiga in Poland got underway with a thrilling turnaround. Deep into the overtime of the tie-breaker in a nail-biting five-setter, Slepsk Malow Suwalki completed a spectacular reverse sweep of their home game against ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle on Wednesday evening.

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Slepsk Malow came back from two sets down against their mighty visitors and, after over two and a half hours of play time, they celebrated a 3-2 (23-25, 15-25, 25-21, 25-19, 21-19) victory along with the home crowd at the Suwalki Arena. The hosts had the first three opportunities to close the match, but were denied by ZAKSA, who in turn wasted the next three match points, already well beyond the 15^th point. After 19-19, Slepsk Malow’s Brazilian outside hitter Henrique Honorato delivered the final blow with two consecutive serving aces to end it all at 21-19.

Honorato finished with a total of six aces, two kill blocks and 15 spike kills at a 52% success rate in attack. He also registered a solid 73% good reception in handling the opponents’ serves, so the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award he received at the end of the match was a well-deserved one.

Opposite Bartosz Filipiak was the winners’ most prolific scorer with a total of 26 points, including two aces and a block, while his counterpart – Italian international Kamil Rychlicki – put away a match-high 30 points for ZAKSA, including four blocks and three aces. Another three of ZAKSA’s players reached the double digits during the game – outside Rafal Szymura with 15, and middle blockers Karol Urbanowicz with 14 and Szymon Jakubiszak with 10.

The two teams kept their positions in the current standings. Slepsk Malow are in 10^th place, now on 24 points and a 7-13 win-loss record, while ZAKSA are running on the edge of the playoff zone, in eighth place on 29 and 9-11.

The 21^st leg will continue with five more matches this week, February 13 to 15 – two on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday.

PlusLiga 2025-2026 upcoming matches:
Feb 13, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj v PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow
Feb 13, 20:00 local (19:00 UTC): Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski v Steam Hemarpol Politechnika Czestochowa
Feb 14, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Barkom Kazhany Lviv v Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
Feb 14, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Asseco Resovia Rzeszow v InPost ChKS Chelm
Feb 15, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Indykpol AZS Olsztyn v PGE Projekt Warsaw

PlusLiga 2025-2026 schedule and results

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