Poland on to VNL final after clean sweep of semi against Brazil

Poland secured a podium spot in the men’s Volleyball Nations League with a clean 3-0 (28-26, 25-19, 25-21) sweep of Saturday’s second semifinal in Ningbo, China, in which they took on Preliminary Phase winners Brazil. It will be the sixth consecutive time for the European powerhouse to claim a VNL medal, missing out only on the first edition back in 2018. In Sunday’s final, the world’s number one team will lock horns with reigning world champions Italy, who overcame Slovenia’s resistance in the first semifinal earlier in the day. Poland will try to earn their second VNL crown, after 2023, while Italy have already guaranteed themselves their first ever medal in the history of the competition and will fight to make it gold. In the third place game, Brazil will aim at their second VNL podium, after their gold in 2021, while Slovenia hope to claim their first VNL hardware, after two fourth places in 2021 and 2024.

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With the counts relatively balanced in kill blocks, serving aces and unforced errors, it was the offense that made the big difference in Poland’s success against Brazil on Sunday. The European champions tallied as many as 42 points in attack, against only 32 from their South American opponents.

Opposite Kewin Sasak was the best scorer of the match. He contributed 19 points towards the victory, registering a remarkable 81% success rate in spiking. He also scored a point from the serving line and a point in blocking. Middle blocker and captain Jakub Kochanowski chipped in with three kill blocks, two aces and five kills in attack at a 71% success rate to tap into the double digits. Outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk, who subbed into the game in sets two and three, had only six opportunities to swing, but he killed them all to sign off with an amazing 100% success rate in offense.

“I am so proud of our team, because we did an amazing job in serving, blocking, spiking and reception… every element. So, I am so happy, I am proud of the team and I hope that we will play a good game again tomorrow,” Poland’s setter Marcin Komenda told VBTV. “It will be a really tough game, because Italy is so strong. So, we have to be ready to fight and prepare for a long game, because Italy will push us from the beginning. I hope that, like today and like the last game against Japan, it will be nice.”

Three Brazilian players spiked at success rates around 60% - experienced middle blocker Flavio Gualberto, 23-year-old opposite Darlan Souza and 21-year-old outside hitter Arthur Bento Buczmiejuk. Only Darlan, however, who also put away two aces and a kill block, reached the double digits in scoring with a total of 16 points to his name.

“Tomorrow we are going to have another match and it is really important to shoot for a medal to pay off for what we did in the full championship. I would say we deserve this medal,” said Brazil’s outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli. “I think today we made too many mistakes in spiking maybe, because we had a lot of opportunities through the game. Their opposite was very good and we could not stop him really well. I think these were the two main things…”

Sunday’s program in Ningbo will get underway with the bronze medal game between Brazil and Slovenia at 15:00 local time (07:00 UTC). The big showdown for the 2025 crown between Poland and Italy will serve off at 19:00 (11:00).

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

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