Jastrzebski Stayed On Top By Overpowering Zawiercie, BR Volleys Remained Undefeated By Defeating Lüneburg

This weekend, there were huge volleyball actions across many of the national leagues, but especially in two matches, where the #CLVolleyM teams faced off, went more comfortably than expected for Jastrzebski in Poland and BR Volleys in Germany. Meanwhile, both two #CLVolleyM squads in Belgium failed against their important opponents, resulting in huge changes in the overall standings.

Two undefeated teams and group leaders in the CEV Champions League Volley, Jastrzebski Wegiel and Aluron CMC Warta-Zawiercie took the court against each other in the 15th and the last round of the first half in the Polish PlusLiga. Even though both teams played at quite a high level in each set, the Jastrzebski side managed to play slightly better at the last points and became victorious by a score of 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-22).

The Polish outside hitter Tomasz Fornal became the top scorer of the game with 15 points, including two aces and two blocks. Karol Butryn’s 14 and Aaron Russell’s 13 points were not enough for victory on the losing side. Thanks to this victory, Jastrzebski remained on the top of the charts with 13 victories and a total of 35 points. Zawiercie dropped to third position, and the new vice-leaders are the other #CLVolleyM club, Projekt Warszawa, the team took a 3-2 win this weekend.

Two #CLVolleyM squads from Germany, Berlin Recycling Volleys and SVG Lüneburg held an essential battle in the 11th leg of the German 1. Bundesliga. Starting from the first ball, BR Volleys side clearly played a more dominant game, and without letting Lüneburg catch them, they clinched a comfortable victory in straight sets (3-0: 25-18, 25-18, 25-20).

The American opposite Jake Hanes became the most productive player on the court with 13 points, but the Most Valuable Player was the German middle blocker Florian Krage, who scored 10 points, with a 64% attack percentage. Canadian international Xander Ketrzynski was the only player who scored in double digits (13 points) on Lüneburg. Thanks to this huge victory, BR Volleys kept their perfect record and with a total of 33 points in 11 games, they currently have a gap of six points between the vice-leaders, VfB Friedrichshafen. Suffering their second consecutive loss, the Lüneburg side fell down to third place.

It was not the best weekend for the #CLVolleyM contenders in Belgium: Both Knack Roeselare and Greenyard Maaseik completed the weekend by being defeated by the remaining top four squads of the country and slipped one rank down in the charts. Likewise, HalkBank Ankara from Türkiye took a 3-0 loss against Arkasspor, and they completed the 11th round in second place.

This weekend, the leaders of the domestic standings in Poland and Germany had quite strong battles against #CLVolleyM teams, but both Jastrzebski and BR Volleys won their matches without any difficulties. This was not the case in Belgium, since Roeselare side tackled the top position to their opponent, due to a defeat in 3-2. Now, it is time to focus on the following clashes ahead, and each team will definitely aim to improve their performances to reach their best level.