The journey through the ordeal of Polish volleyball players. Fortunately, with a happy ending

Polish volleyball players started the Nations League season brilliantly. The White and Reds defeated the reserve team of the United States 3-0. One of the leaders in our squad was Aleksander Śliwka, who scored 13 points. Moreover, he attacked 14 times with an efficiency of 50 percent (14 percent perfect), attacked 20 times, here 50 percent. Good luck. The national team captain also added one service ace and two point blocks.

Poor start for the Poles

In the second match, the white and red team faced Canada. In this match, Nikola Grbic chose the following “six”: Kamil Semeniuk, Karol Butryn, Bartosz Bednorz, Mateusz Poręba, Jakub Kochanowski, Grzegorz Łomacz, Kamil Szymura.

There was considerable controversy from the very beginning. The Canadians started with a serve, and Karol Butryn with an effective attack. However, the judge decided to repeat this action because the judges who were sitting at the benches were not ready yet. In the end, it turned out to be the same, because the rivals broke the second serve. Since the score was 3:3, the Canadians won two games in a row and gained two points. Tuomas Sammelvuo's players played great defense, which reflected the effectiveness of our attack.

With the score 10:8, the referees whistled an unusual error – Karol Butryn exceeded 8 seconds on the serve. Thanks to this, our rivals jumped back and then increased their lead (10:15). With this result, Nikola Grbic asked for a second break to motivate his players. This resulted in two effective plays and points scored. Unfortunately, this set could not be saved. Ultimately, this game ended with the score 18:25.

Great series from the Poles in the second set

From the beginning of the second set, the Canadians continued their brilliant play. Their block was almost impossible to break, which meant that they took a 2:4 lead from the very beginning. Fortunately, Jakub Kochanowski hit the serve at the right moment, whose serve allowed us to equalize the score 5:5 and then take the lead.

Since the score was 6:5, our center scored two aces in a row, thanks to which we increased the advantage to three points. What Kochanowski started, Semeniuk later continued. The white and red team doubled this advantage (17:11) and controlled the course of the match. Ultimately, this set ended with the score 25:19.

The Poles finished the job

The third set was very even and fierce. Both teams defended brilliantly and played incredibly strong plays that either returned to the other side or flew into the stands. Volleyball players from both teams went head to head. Only when the score was 16:16, Bartłomiej Bołądź scored two points in a row, one of which was a service ace. This meant that Nikola Grbic's players gained two points for the first time in this game. In this game, the Poles won 25:23.

The Poles started the fourth set with a service ace by Kamil Semeniuk. Our receiver repeated the serve three more times, but the last one went out. Thanks to this, we took a 3:1 lead. In the next actions, the white and red team got excited and their rivals had nothing to say. Nikola Grbic's team gained seven points (12:5). At some point, our players got stuck and our rivals made up for some of their losses. Fortunately, it did not affect the final result – 25:21.