Budowlani and Bielsko-Biała return home under pressure

PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź and BKS BOSTIK ZGO Bielsko-Biała started their 2024-2025 Polish Women’s Tauron Liga semifinal series behind, and have no more room for errors as they continue to fight for a spot in the tournament’s Finals.

After three days of preparation, the teams are ready to get back on the court and count on the support of their home fans to level their best-of-three series on Tuesday, when Budowlani meet crosstown rivals ŁKS Commercecon Łódź at 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT) and Bielsko-Biała host KS DevelopRes Rzeszów three hours later in the second round of their respective series.

• Watch the Polish Tauron Liga playoffs live on VBTV

Last Friday, Budowlani couldn’t find their game against Commercecon before the third set and ended up dropping the first leg of the Łódź Derby in straight sets. Going into the second match, they hope to be able to fix their issues and remain focused, despite the higher level of pressure.

“The series didn’t end after the first match and I think there’s a lot of work to be done on both sides,” said head coach Maciej Biernat. “We can’t panic and need to approach the series with patience, but also knowing that we need to improve on the elements of the game that didn’t work in the first match. We’ll do everything we can so that a third match is needed.”

Commercecon, on the other hand, have great confidence after their three-set victory a few days ago. If the team had struggled to advance from the quarterfinals, needing three matches to eliminate ITA TOOLS Stal Mielec, they couldn’t have hoped for a better start in the semifinals, and now they want to build from it.

“We’ll do everything to avoid a third match,” middle blocker Klaudia Alagierska commented. “Budowlani will certainly change something in their strategy and will fight hard because they need two wins to advance. In this moment of the season, we all know that every match is decisive, so we’re focused on bringing our best in each of them.”

Bielsko-Biała defy the odds against DevelopRes

The other semifinal series had a more competitive start, as DevelopRes needed four sets to top Bielsko-Biała in Rzeszów. However, to create the need for a third and decisive match, the reigning Polish Supercup champions will need to do something they historically struggle with – beating DevelopRes. Before Tuesday’s encounter, Bielsko-Biała have only six victories against their opponents in 27 encounters and dropped the last five.

“I don’t think they’re necessarily a tough matchup for us, but the results certainly indicate it,” said outside hitter Julita Piasecka. “But whatever it is, we’ll continue to fight as we want to return to Rzeszów for the third match. To do that, we need to understand what went wrong in the first match and be brave. I’m very positive about Tuesday’s match.”

Controlling the series after their first-round victory, DevelopRes want to keep their level of play elevated for Tuesday’s road match, where they hope to secure a spot in the Polish League Finals.

“We expect the second match to be even more difficult as they have nothing to lose now,” setter Katarzyna Wenerska reacted. “I’m sure they will focus a lot on their serving because that’s a skill that can win the game for them. I’m confident that we’ll be able to win the series on Tuesday and that would be very important as it would give us some time to prepare for the Finals.”

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