VNL 2025

Rising star Czyrnianska shines in Poland’s sweep of Germany

Captain Cazaute steers France to second win in VNL 2025

Published 10:39, 20 Jun 2025

Germany (GER) vs. Poland (POL) women - Pool 6 - Preliminary Phase #47778081

Poland’s Martyna Czyrnianska in attack against Germany

21-year-old outside hitter Martyna Czyrnianska took her turn in the leading role for Poland as the team shut out Germany in a women’s Volleyball Nations League match in Belgrade on Friday evening. Before that, France swept their game with the Netherlands to step further way from the dangers of the bottom of the table. Poland are now second in the current VNL standings on a 6-1 win-loss record and 18 points. Despite the loss, Germany are still above the cut-off for the Finals, in sixth place on 4-3 and 13. Separated by only a point, the Netherlands and France are 10^th and 11^th on 2-4 and 8, and on 2-4 and 7, respectively.

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Poland mastered an emphatic straight-set victory, 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-20), over the strong team of Germany, outplaying the opponents on all scoring counts, especially in blocking, where they put away 12 kill blocks, twice as many as Germany’s six.

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Three of those were authored by rising star Martyna Czyrnianska, who also fired an ace and hit at a 52% success rate to contribute a match-high 16 points towards Poland’s success in this game. Opposite Magdalena Stysiak added another 14 points, including two aces and a block, while outside Martyna Lukasik’s 10-point tally consisted of four kill blocks, one ace and five kills in attack. Germany’s leading scorer, Emilia Weske, also produced 10 points.

“I think the block was working really well tonight, but everything starts from the serving and we were serving really well, so that then we could play block-defense on a nice level,” Poland’s star middle blocker and captain Agnieszka Korneluk told VBTV. “We are trying to reach our level and I think tonight it was looking better than the previous day, so we are happy about this game. Now we are going to rest and then focus 100% on the last game here. We know that it will be difficult to play here in Serbia against the Serbian team.”

Earlier on Friday in Belgrade, France produced a convincing 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-20) shutout of the Netherlands, widely outscoring their opponents in offense with 49 kills against just 32. All three of their wing attackers registered success rates in attack well above 50%.

Experienced outside hitter and captain Helena Cazaute led the way with a match-high 18 points, all in swings. Opposite Iman Ndiaye and the other outside hitter Sabine Haewegene put away 13 points each, while middle blocker Amandha Sylves fired an ace and raised four kill blocks and also reached the double digits with 10 points. The only one who did that on the Dutch side was 22-year-old outside Iris Vos, whose 11-point tally included three blocks and an ace.

Another six VNL matches are coming up on Saturday. The competition day will start in Hong Kong at 16:30 local time (08:30 UTC) with a game between Czechia and Thailand. In what could be dubbed as the match of the day, Japan will take on hosts China in an Asian classic starting at 20:00 (12:00). The Istanbul program starts with a game between the Dominican Republic and Brazil at 16:00 local time (13:00 UTC) and ends with Korea challenging the home team Turkiye at 19:30 (16:30). The Netherlands and USA will lock horns in Belgrade at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC), followed by a match between France and hosts Serbia at 20:00 (18:00).