On November 2, PGE Projekt Warszawa unexpectedly lost on its home court to Steam Hemarpol Norwid Częstochowa 1:3. Since then, however, Piotr Graban's team has been undefeated in thirteen consecutive matches in all competitions, beating, among others, Polish champion Jastrzębski Węgiel 3:2 or ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle 3:0.
Thirteen wins and that's it. The great streak of the Project has been interrupted. PlusLiga has a new leader
In Saturday's hit of the 20th round of PlusLiga, the Warsaw team finally found a winner. It turned out to be the Polish runner-up, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, who defeated Projekt 3:1 on their home court.
The guests could not use the Frenchman Kevin Tillie in this match, who was replaced by the German Tobias Brand. Nevertheless, it is difficult to consider this as an explanation for their weaker performance in Zawiercie, especially in the first two sets, in which Projekt practically did not put up a fight.
The first game started with a very high lead of Warta 10:2 after a series of serves (including two service aces) by Aaron Russell. The Warsaw team did not return to this game and at the end the score was 25:17 for the hosts. There were no greater emotions in the second set, where Zawiercie was leading from the first to the last ball and was able to maintain it at five or six points to win by 20.
For the third game, Projekt started with Linus Weber, an attacking substitute in this match, and the effect was immediate, because the Warsaw team finally started a fight with the Polish runner-up, which resulted in, among others, some extremely impressive actions. Piotr Graban's team started to fight to turn the tide of the match and won the third set confidently 25:19.
This, however, still did not give her even a point, and at the beginning of the fourth part, the guests were again seriously damaged by the plays of the best player on the court, Russell. This, combined with Tobias Brand's poor attacking play, gave the hosts a quick 6-2 lead. Warsaw still did not give up, even losing 10:15, it laboriously made up for the losses, only to gain contact with its rival after Jan Firlej's ace (16:15). However, Warta was able to repel the opponent's attack at the end and won the fourth set by 21, ending the match with a service ace by Bartosz Kwolek.
The best volleyball player of Saturday's match was chosen by Zawiercie's American player, Aaron Russell, who scored 23 points. Bartosz Kwolek added 19 points to the hosts' tally, and Karol Butryn added 13. Linus Weber was the most effective player in the Project, even though he only came off the bench in the first two sets. The German scored 16 points.
Thanks to the 3-1 win, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie with 48 points became the new leader of the PlusLiga at least until Sunday. PGE Projekt Warszawa has two points less and takes third place.