Łódź rivals clash for first place in the Tauron Liga

The duel between crosstown rivals PGE Grot Budowlani Łódź and ŁKS Commercecon Łódź will be the highlight of the 11^th leg of the Polish Women’s Tauron Liga, which will mark the end of the first round of the regular season in the country, featuring six matches between Thursday and Monday.

The two sides are tied at the top of the standings with 25 points and the winners of Friday’s encounter, which is scheduled for 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT), will end the weekend as the lone leaders of the Polish League. Budowlani will enter the match in first place thanks to their better set ratio and they also have one game in hand, having played just nine matches to Commercecon’s ten.

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The home team on Friday’s duel, Budowlani will have no shortage of confidence after they regained the top spot in the standings last weekend with a victory over defending champions LOTTO Chemik Police. Ending the first round of the regular season with a three-point lead over their rivals and one extra match to play would put them in a strong position to enter the playoffs as the top-seeded team in the country.

The team’s top scorer in the season with 138 points, outside hitter Karolina Drużkowska has been one of Budowlani’s standouts in 2024-2025. Setter Alicja Grabka, who ranks third in the entire league in aces with 14, and libero Justyna Łysiak, second in passing efficiency (52.45%), are other key players for the league leaders.

For Commercecon, Saturday’s match will represent an opportunity to immediately return to first place in the standings. They had passed Budowlani in the seventh leg, when their opponents had their match postponed, but fell back to second place last weekend, following a defeat to BKS BOSTIK ZGO Bielsko-Biała.

Commercecon have the Tauron Liga top scorer, Ukrainian Anastasiia Hryshchuk, with 169 points, and many other players well-positioned in the individual rankings, such as outside hitters Zuzanna Górecka (50%) and Regiane Bidias (49.43%), fourth and fifth in passing efficiency.

Friday’s match will mark the 26^th time the Łódź Derby happens in the Tauron Liga and Commercecon have been more successful historically, with 15 victories. Budowlani won three of the five most recent duels.

Bielsko-Biała and Radomka are the first to play

The 11^th leg of the regular season in Poland begins on Thursday, with the duel between fourth-placed Bielsko-Biała and sixth-placed MOYA Radomka Radom, at 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT). On the same day, at 19:00 (18:00), fifth-placed #VolleyWrocław host seventh-placed UNI Opole.

The remaining three duels will all be played in different days, with third-placed KS DevelopRes Rzeszów facing ninth-placed Chemik on Saturday at 12:30 (11:30), tenth-placed Energa MKS Kalisz meeting 12^th-placed ITA TOOLS STAL Mielec on Sunday at 16:00 (15:00) and eighth-placed Metalkas Pałac Bydgoszcz going against 11^th-placed Sokół & Hagric Mogilno on Monday at 17:30 (16:30).

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