The match between ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle and BOGDANKA LUK Lublin will be the highlight of the 23rd round of the Polish PlusLiga. This is the leitmotif of all Polish media writing about volleyball. In the first part of the regular season, the players from Lublin triumphed without much trouble. Now, however, ZAKSA is in a completely different situation.This will also be the first match in PlusLiga where Bartosz Kurek and Wilfredo Leon will stand on opposite sides of the net.
PlusLiga this season confirms its position in world volleyball. All three Polish teams qualified for the quarterfinals of the Champions League, Asseco Resovia continues to play in the CEV Cup, and BOGDANKA LUK Lublin in the Challenge Cup. Furthermore, there is no shortage of big stars in Poland. It is difficult not to include two players in the pantheon of world volleyball: Bartosz Kurek and Wilfredo Leon. Both players are at the core of the Polish national team's strength and have celebrated, for example, a silver medal from the Olympic Games with it.
Now, for the first time in PlusLiga history, Bartosz Kurek and Wilfredo Leon will stand on opposite sides of the net.The last time the players from Kędzierzyn-Koźle enjoyed a victory over LUK Lublin was in 2022. Back then, they triumphed 3:0. While several players from the Lublin team remember that match perfectly, from ZAKSA's side, only Marcin Janusz, David Smith, and Erik Shoji remained. The next two matches ended in a tie-break, and the last two in three sets. At the end of October 2024, Massimo Botti's proteges triumphed 3:0, with setter Marcin Komenda becoming MVP. However, it should be remembered that the start of the season was not particularly successful for the Kędzierzyn team, which had to cope without Bartosz Kurek. The attacker was recovering from a serious injury he sustained in the first round of the season. Now, however, there is no trace of it.
The last few weeks in PlusLiga, however, have been marked by Bartosz Kurek. The captain of the Polish national team shines, and his team triumphs. Kurek has been awarded the MVP trophy in each of the last four matches. He is still behind Wilfredo Leon, who has received the status of best player of the match 6 times so far. Both Kurek and Leon are key figures in their teams. However, they are not the only ones. Judging by the last few weeks, it seems that Kurek has a better-balanced team around him. When needed, he has excellent performing receivers by his side: Rafał Szymura and Igor Grobelny. Wilfredo Leon, for his part, can rely mainly on the offensive power of Kevin Sasak.
Quietly, ZAKSA is climbing the table, and another interesting aspect of Saturday's match will be the fact that only one point separates the teams in the standings.Furthermore, ZAKSA has one postponed match yet to play. The statistics of the two teams reflect their closeness in the standings. Perhaps that is why the slight advantage to tip the scales in ZAKSA's favor will be the audience in the hall in Kędzierzyn-Koźle. This season, Andrea Giani's proteges have lost only twice at home, while LUK has had to acknowledge the opponent's superiority four times on foreign ground. Predicted line-ups:
ZAKSA: Janusz, Kurek, Szymura, Grobelny, Smith, Grobelny, Shoji (libero) LUK: Komenda, Sasak, Leon, Tuinstra, McCarthy,Grozdanov, Thales (libero)

Polish colleagues' prediction: ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle – BOGDANKA LUK Lublin 3:2