Quite the week of volleyball! The German Bundesliga has accelerated their season due to Covid-19, moving straight into the playoff bracket. The Polish PlusLiga saw its next round of the main draw, including a thrilling 5 set match between TJ DeFalco and Taylor Averill's AZS Olszytn square off against Mica Ma'a's GKS Katowice. In the Italian SuperLega, we saw a highly competitive week without a single 3-set sweep from any of the competitors. Great match between Milano and Perugia, with some really high level names playing... and of course we've got video links for you.
PlusLiga
The Polish League kept up its regular season play this week, seeing a dramatic 5-set match between AZS Olszytn and GKS Katowice (VolleyMetrics, YouTube Highlights). In the win for AZS Olszytn, TJ DeFalco scored a match high 25 points while Taylor Averill went a flawless 7 for 7 in attack. This result leaves both squads still in the middle of the Polish standings. Dustin Watten's LUK Lublin had a 3-0 sweep of Prjoekt Warszawa (Warsaw) in an upset (VolleyMetrics, YouTube Highlights), Watten passing a lights-out 50% perfect reception at the libero position. Erik Shoji and David Smith saw no action this week with Zaksa due to their current schedule of Champion's League.
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Gdansk swept Stal Nysa 3-0, keeping them in last place of the league. Radom fell 3-0 to Malow Suwalki, each team keeping their position in the standings. We also had third ranked Zawiercie pull off a nail biter in 5 sets against low-ranking Cuprum Lubin.
SuperLega
The SuperLega kept up it's high standard of play as per usual this week, though some matches were missed due to the Champion's League schedule. Padova came back against Taranto after coming back from down two, only to fall 12-15 in the 5th, maintaining their standing (VolleyMetrics, YouTube Highlights). Thomas Jaeschke and his team, Allianz Milano, fell to Matt Anderson and the insanely talented, top-ranked Perugia in four sets. Both USA standouts had solid performances, with Jaeschke scoring 14 for Milano and Anderson scoring 20 for Perugia (VolleyMetrics, YouTube Highlights). Trentino edged out Monza 3-1 with some stellar passing numbers. Though no featured American players, Vibo Valentia squared off against RCM Ravenna and took the match again 3-1. This was a great libero duel, with both teams passing the ball at a crazy high level.
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga saw it's next round this week with some competitive, but fairly expected results. VfB Friedrichshafen bested Frankfurt United Volleys 3-1 in an absolute block-party of a match, with VfB registering a total of 15 stuff blocks! WWK Herrsching took down the Giesen Grizzlies in another 4-set match. Giesen won the attacking stats, but Herrsching's serving and passing propelled them to victory with 13 aces and 49% positive reception. SVG Lüneburg, featuring Americans Jordan Ewert, Joe Worsley, and Dalton Solbrig took home a hard-fought 5-set win against KW Netzhoppers. Ewert scored a team-best 18 points with a 44% attack efficiency, meanwhile Worsley took home the gold MVP for the match. Lastly, we had two of the leagues top teams square off, Berlin Recycling Volleys vs SWD Düren. Berlin took the match in a 4 set rollercoaster. Ben Patch had the hot hand for the match, hitting a blistering 76% in attack efficiency, 16 kills on 21 swings.