A spectacular five-set battle on Monday evening closed the 14th leg in Poland’s PlusLiga and delivered an upset that left one vacancy for the TAURON Poland Cup still up for grabs. It was one of as many as three nail-biting tie-breaker matches that decorated the leg played from Thursday to Monday.
PlusLiga 2024-2025
Trefl upset Norwid in spectacular five-setter
Recap of PlusLiga’s 14th-leg matches
Published 07:50, 03 Dec 2024
Trefl’s Jakub Jarosz trying to tackle a three-man Norwid block (photo: Marek Osuchowski / plusliga.pl)
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Trefl Gdansk achieved a narrow 3-2 (25-23, 25-27, 26-24, 19-25, 15-13) away victory over Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa in a 172-minute match, where four of the five sets were decided by the narrowest of margins and two of them were pushed to overtime. Outside hitter Piotr Orczyk led Trefl with 22 points and earned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) nomination, while Norwid’s Czech opposite Patrik Indra hammered out a 34-point match high, including four kill blocks. 11th-placed Trefl improved to 17 points and a 5-9 win-loss record.
A win would have solidified Norwid’s sixth place in the current standings and guaranteed them a spot in the Poland Cup quarterfinals, but now they will have to engage in a direct battle for the last remaining vacancy with the other candidate, PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow, next Sunday. The team from Czestochowa is on 25 and 9-5, two points clear of seventh-placed SKRA (23, 8-6), who will welcome them to Belchatow for a deciding 15th-leg duel.
SKRA also suffered a five-set defeat in the 14th-leg opener on Thursday after pushing their hosts PGE Projekt Warsaw to a tie-breaker resolution. The squad from the capital squeezed out a tight 3-2 (25-17, 19-25, 23-25, 28-26, 17-15) victory in the overtime of the fifth set, but the point lost cost them the second place in the table and they descended to third on 33 and 12-2. Projekt’s opposite Bartlomiej Boladz was the best scorer of the match with 23 points. French outside Kevin Tillie added another 16 points and claimed the MVP award. Iranian opposite Amin Esmaeilnezhad led SKRA with 21 points.
Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie took the opportunity to climb to second place on 34 and 11-3 with a straight-set home win over PSG Stal Nysa. Their American opposite Kyle Ensing delivered a match-high 17 points towards a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 27-25) sweep that pushed Stal down to second from the bottom, 15th place on 9 and 2-12. They were surpassed by Barkom Kazhany Lviv to the 14th place on 9 and 3-11 after a 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-14) home win over Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin, who are 13th on 11 and 3-11. Estonian outside Mart Tammearu led the Ukrainian team to victory with 17 points.
The third five-setter of the leg brought ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle an away win over Asseco Resovia Rzeszow, with three of the sets, including the tie-breaker, pushed deep into overtime, 3-2 (25-11, 26-28, 25-20, 29-31, 20-18). Star opposite Bartosz Kurek fuelled the visitors’ success with 22 points, while his French counterpart Stephen Boyer produced a match-high 25. ZAKSA are in fifth place on 28 and 9-5, safely qualified for the cup, while Resovia are now out of contention, in eighth place on 22 and 6-8.
Table leaders and defending champions Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj mastered a 3-0 (32-30, 25-23, 25-16) shutout of their hosts BOGDANKA LUK Lublin to improve to 37 and 12-2 and leave the opponents at 28 and 10-4 in fourth place. French outside Timothee Carle spearheaded the winners with 17 points.
Indykpol AZS Olsztyn extended their winning streak to three consecutive matches with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) sweep of their home game against Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski, with a 14-point match high from German outside Moritz Karlitzek, and consolidated their 12th place, away from the relegation zone, on 17 and 5-9. Cuprum dropped a spot down to 10th place on 19 and 8-6, overtaken by Slepsk Malow Suwalki after a 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 22-25, 25-19) away win over bottom-placed GKS Katowice, who trail in 16th place on 4 and 1-13. Opposite Bartosz Filipiak led the winners with 19 points.
The first half of the regular season will be completed with the eight matches of the 15th leg set to be played from December 6 to 9.
PlusLiga 2024-2025 15th leg:
Dec 06, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Cuprum Stilon Gorzow Wielkopolski v BOGDANKA LUK Lublin
Dec 07, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Slepsk Malow Suwalki v PGE Projekt Warsaw
Dec 07, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): PSG Stal Nysa v Barkom Kazhany Lviv
Dec 07, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle v GKS Katowice
Dec 08, 14:45 local (13:45 UTC): Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie v Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj
Dec 08, 17:30 local (16:30 UTC): Indykpol AZS Olsztyn v Trefl Gdansk
Dec 08, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): PGE GiEK SKRA Belchatow v Steam Hemarpol Norwid Czestochowa
Dec 09, 20:30 local (19:30 UTC): Nowak-Mosty MKS Bedzin v Asseco Resovia Rzeszow
