Jastrzebski Survived in Polish Semifinals, Halkbank Took The Crown in Türkiye

Things are getting more and more challenging for the most elite squads of the continent in the playoff phase of domestic leagues, but most of them had important victories against their opponents this week. While Jastrzebski side started to the semifinal stage with a huge win in tie-break, Perugia became victorious in the first final game in Italy, and HalkBank took the top of the Turkish podium.

This year’s CEV Champions League Volley Men SuperFinalist, Jastrzebski Wegiel, faced Asseco Resovia Rzeszow in the first game of the Polish PlusLiga semifinals. Both teams had so many ups and downs throughout the game, and the score was tied to 2-2 after four sets. At that point, Jastrzebski side put a greater effort into the court and won the clash in the tie-break (3-2: 30-32, 25-21, 30-28, 22-25, 15-10).

French opposite Jean Patry became the top scorer (29 points, including five aces and two blocks) of the game and was selected as the MVP,  followed by Tomasz Fornal (19) and Rafal Szymura (14) on the winning side. American outside hitter Torey DeFalco’s 22 points were not enough for victory in Rzeszow. The second leg of the semifinals will be played tomorrow, and the finalists will become apparent in Poland.

The Italian playoff finals started between Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia and Mint Vero Volley Monza. After defeating the SuperFinalist Itas Trentino in the semifinal round, all eyes were on Monza to see what they could do against Perugia. On the other hand, the Perugia side took things seriously and won the battle in four sets (3-1: 27-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23).

There was a straightforward team game on the winning side: Oleh Plotnytskyi (18), Wassim Ben Tara (17), Kamil Semeniuk (13), and Roberto Russo (12) were the players who scored in double digits on the Perugia side. The most productive player on Monza was Ran Takahashi, who scored 18 points.

The final series came to an end in Türkiye: The biggest favorite and the champions of the regular season, Halkbank Ankara, once again defeated Fenerbahce PRL Istanbul and won the whole series by 3-0, which made them the champions of the season. The Dutch opposite of the winning side, Nimir Abdel-Aziz, was honored with the MVP title.

This weekend, the top teams of Europe will continue chasing another victory in the playoff round of the national leagues: Jastrzebski will aim to advance to the Polish finals as expected, and Perugia will try to increase the gap to two clashes against Monza. We will see whether the favorites go on their way as expected or if there will be any surprises.