Leon and Kurek start strong as Poland beat Germany

Poland took their big guns to the second week of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 and it took a single match for them to prove their value to the team in Pool 3 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Wednesday.

With outside hitter Wilfredo Leon and opposite Bartosz Kurek both having great performances, the Poles came out on top of a five-set battle against continental rivals Germany, securing a 3-2 (25-21, 22-25, 25-14, 17-25, 15-10) victory and moving up to sixth place in the standings with four wins (nine points).

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Playing their first match in the VNL 2023, Leon and Kurek were of great importance for the Polish victory. While the Cuban-born outside hitter led all scorers with 19 points (15 kills, two aces, two blocks), the team captain and opposite was right behind him with 18 (16 kills, two blocks).

The match against the Germans was the first of Leon in the VNL since 2021. The 29-year-old outside hitter missed the entire 2022 edition of the tournament as he recovered from a knee injury.

“We expected a really tough match and that’s what we got,” setter Grzegorz Lomacz reflected. “We played really well in the third set, but it all changed in the fourth set. Going into the tie-breaker, we knew we had to push and try to do our best. It was important for us to see that everyone that was on the court stepped up and helped the team. This could be an advantage for us in the next matches.”

Outside hitter Bartosz Bednorz also had a solid performance, leaving the court with 14 points after he registered ten kills, one ace and three blocks.

Germany had three players getting to double digits in scoring with opposite Yan Böhme producing 13 points, outside hitter Erik Röhrs adding 11 and opposite Linus Weber tallying ten.

The Poles were dominant in three statistical categories, leading the Germans in kills (59 to 49), blocks (15 to 12) and aces (six to two), but their higher number of errors (32 to 24) allowed their opponents to challenge them.

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

The European duel was the third and last match held in Rotterdam on Wednesday. The first encounter of the day saw reigning world champions Italy top Iran 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 26-24) with 15 points (12 kills, one ace, two blocks) from outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto and 14 (11 kills, two aces, one block) from opposite Yuri Romanò.

Later, another sweep happened, with the United States handling China 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-18) with outside hitter Thomas Jaeschke leading the way with 15 points (12 kills, one ace, two blocks), followed by fellow outside hitter Torey Defalco and opposite Jake Hanes, who tallied 11 points each. Outside hitter Jingyin Zhang produced 15 points (12 kills, three aces) for the Chinese.

Three more matches will be held in Rotterdam on Friday. China and Italy will open the day of competition in the Dutch city at 13:00 local time (11:00 UTC), with Serbia and Germany battling at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC) and hots the Netherlands playing Poland in the last encounter, at 20:00 local time (18:00 UTC).

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