Next up was the match between Lublin and Kędziedzin Kozile.
Like Zabierce, 4th-placed Lublin is a team that relies on its serves, especially the serve of Poland's OH Leon, who is ranked first in the individual serve rankings. S Komenda brings together a unique group of attackers, including OP Sasak, who is also the team's main scorer, and Bulgaria's MB Grozdanov, who is ranked first in the individual block rankings and has a reputation for his quickness.
5th place Kendzierzyn Kozile (Zaksa) is a team led by OP Krek, a Polish representative who is well known in Japan. Although they have been plagued by injuries throughout this season, they have made it to the playoffs thanks to their depth of player pool and team balance. While OP Krek has an absolute presence as the most MVP award winner, OH Grobelny is also showing the best performance of his career even though he is over 30 years old. In addition, S Janusz, a Polish representative, and L Shoji, a US representative, support the team with their outstanding stability.
The amount of effort put into the home team Lublin was evident from the extravagant entrance ceremony for the players before the match that day.
In the first set, neither team gave in, and Lublin scored points with OP Sasak and Zaksa scored points with OH Shimura, leading to a score of 9-9. After that, Lublin took the lead with a service ace from OH Leon to take a 13-11 lead, but each time Zaksa caught up with a spike from OP Krek and led to a score of 21-21. However, Lublin took the lead with consecutive blocks from relief server OP Malinowski's serve, leading to a score of 23-21, and Lublin maintained the lead with a final score of OP Sasak, winning the set 25-23.
In the second set, Zakusa won the long rally at the beginning with a block from MB Poremba, making the score 4-5. From there, they continued their momentum and took a big lead at 5-11 with consecutive blocks from MB Urbanovic. After that, Lublin narrowed the gap to 8-11 with consecutive blocks from OH Leon, but Zakusa closed the gap to 10-16 with a spike and a service ace from OP Krek. Zakusa continued to use a variety of attacks to side out the ball, and finally, an attack that took advantage of OH Grobelny's course was successful, and they took the set back 17-25.
In the third set, OH Leon's attack mistakes and OP Krek's service ace put Zakuza in the lead 1-5. Zakuza continued to score points with OP Krek's spikes and other efforts, widening their lead to 4-11. After that, Zakuza continued to score side outs, mainly with OP Krek in good form, and went into the final stages with a 6-point lead at 14-20. Lublin also scored points with OP Sasak's spikes and other efforts, but they could not catch up, and in the end OH Sawicki's serve was a mistake, and Zakuza took the set 20-25.
In the fourth set, Zaksa broke early with a block from MB Poremba and took a 1-4 lead. Then, with a service ace from MB Poremba, Zaksa widened the gap to 5-10. In the middle of the set, Zaksa broke again and again with a powerful serve from OH Grobelnyi and a score from OP Krek, making the score 13-20. After that, Lublin struggled to serve and couldn't break, but in the end, an ace from MB Poremba gave Zaksa the set 19-25 and the victory was 1-3.
Lublin - Szaxa
1-3 (25-23, 17-25, 20-25, 19-25)
Stats
The MVP was OP Krek. He contributed to the victory with a huge performance, scoring the most points of both teams with 22 points (18 attacks, 2 serves, 2 blocks). He was under a lot of pressure from OH Leon, the opponent's main source of points, not to mention his attacks, but also his blocks. Despite barely playing in the first half of the regular season due to an eye injury in the opening game, he is currently leading the league with 8 MVP awards. This player never misses a game and never fails to perform well. He turns 37 this year, but he doesn't seem that old at all.
Saksa also performed well in serving and blocking, making a total of 10 blocks and putting pressure on Lublin's main scorers OH Leon and OP Sasak.
Lublin's strong serve did not work well, especially in the second half of the match, and they made too many mistakes and could not take advantage of the break chances. Also, the success rate of OH Leon, who is the main source of points, did not improve until the third set, which was a hardship for the team.
For Lublin, if they couldn't attack with their serves, it would be no good. In particular, neither of Lublin's outside players were very good at receiving serves, so they won by hitting back rather than being hit by their opponents' serves.
The second game of this match was already played yesterday (Tuesday 1st), with Lublin winning 0-3 (15-25, 21-25, 20-25). However, while they had 5 aces, they limited Zakxa to 0, and OH Leon scored a high percentage of spikes, winning the MVP award.
However, OP Krek of Zaksa was benched. He doesn't seem to have a good back. MB Grozdanov was also injured during the match in Lublin, who won. When I asked him about his condition in the post-match interview, he laughed and said, "I'm not in good condition," but I never imagined he would be benched in a home game. He was so active in the first match.
However, as OP Krek answered, every team has some problems. They fight within those problems to decide the winner.
With the score at 1-1, the winner of the third match on Sunday, April 6th will advance to the semi-finals. There is no doubt that the key to victory will be how well each team prepares for the match by this date.
Photo: PlusLiga.pl, TOSHIKI
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