DevelopRes and Commercecon clash for first place in the Tauron Liga

The top spot in the standings of the Polish Women’s Tauron Liga will be in play this weekend, during the ninth leg of the regular season in the country.

Among the five matches set to take place between Thursday and Sunday is the highly-anticipated duel between league leaders ŁKS Commercecon Łódź and second-placed KS DevelopRes Rzeszów, on Saturday, at 12:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

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Commercecon currently sit at the top of the standings with 22 points (seven wins, one loss), with DevelopRes coming right next with 21 (eight wins). The winners of the match will end the week in first place in the Tauron Liga.

The only undefeated team in the Polish League, DevelopRes will have the homecourt advantage in Saturday’s encounter, playing in front of their fans in Rzeszów. The team also has a slight lead in the history of matches between the two sides, having triumphed 16 times to Commercecon’s 14.

“We played them in preseason during the Giganci Siatkówki tournament and won, but I don’t think that will have any impact on Saturday’s match,” said DevelopRes and Polish national team middle blocker Magdalena Jurczyk. “We want to win this match to get to first place and the way we do it is going out, giving our 100% and fighting. We won every match but are not in first place, so we want to take all three points to change it.”

Brazilian opposite Sabrina Machado, ranked sixth among the scorers (114 points), star middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk, tenth among the blockers (19), and Dutch outside hitter Marrit Jasper, tenth among the passers (48.09% efficiency), are some of the team’s standouts this season.

Commercecon took the top spot in the Polish League two weeks ago and will try to defend it for a second straight time on Saturday. The match will carry extra weight for the team’s captain and outside hitter Anna Obiała, who joined this season after four years with DevelopRes.

“There will definitely be different feelings, but it will be nice to return to that building,” she said. “Emotions will be higher, but I’m with a new team now and want to achieve our goals alongside my teammates. So we’ll go there with the goal of getting the win. Our game is much better now than it was at the start of the season and I feel that we’re ready for big matches like this.”

Commercecom have the league’s second-best scorer in Ukrainian opposite Anastazja Hryshchuk (143 points), as well as Obiała appearing in second place in aces (13) and libero Maria Stenzel (54.29%) and Brazilian outside hitter/libero Regiane Bidias (52.63%) appearing as third and fourth in serve-receive efficiency.

First match on Thursday

The ninth leg of the regular season starts on Thursday, with seventh-placed MOYA Radomka Radom hosting fifth-placed UNI Opole at 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT). On Friday, sixth-placed #VolleyWrocław will be at home against third-placed PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź, also at 17:30 (16:30).

On Saturday, at 20:30 (19:30), 12^th-placed Sokół & Hagric Mogilno will try to get their first victory against eighth-placed and defending champions LOTTO Chemik Police. On Sunday, 11^th-placed Metalkas Pałac Bydgoszcz will be up against ninth-placed Energa MKS Kalisz, at 19:00 (18:00).

The match between fourth-placed BKS BOSTIK ZGO Bielsko-Biała and tenth-placed ITA TOOLS STAL Mielec was postponed and won’t happen until the end of January.

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