The PlusLiga volleyball league is back with a bang. The season was opened by Warta Zawiercie and LUK Lublin. Both teams are focused on fighting for the top spots in this season. leagueand in the summer they made some transfer hits. The first one brought in the US representative Aaron Russell, while the Lublin team probably beat everyone by bringing in the star of the Polish national team Wilfredo Leon.
LUK Lublin and Warta Zawiercie prepared hell for themselves at the start
The match played in Zawiercie met expectations in terms of emotions and drama. It lasted over three hours, which, as Jakub Balcerzak noted on the X portal, is only the second time in the history of PlusLiga that a match lasts so long. LUK and Warta went into an absolute war of attrition. The first set won by the hosts 29:27 suggested that we were dealing with a hellishly even clash, and it was no different. The next two sets were won by the Lublin team (25:22 and 25:23 respectively), but the fourth set was again a triumph for Warta (25:20).
A tiebreak was needed to determine the winner. The visitors proved to be better, quickly taking a four-point lead (6:2) and not giving up the advantage until the end (15:12). In their colours, attacker Kewin Sasak played particularly well, author of 22 points. The big absentee of the season opener, the eagerly awaited Wilfredo Leon, did not contribute to the victory. Polish We hadn't had a chance to see the host yet and many people were probably wondering what was going on.
Wilfredo Leon is not ready yet. Russell and Bieniek too
Leon had already said in a conversation with Przegląd Sportowy before the season that he might not be ready to play in Zawiercie. And in fact, he did not manage to do so, but the club itself even issued a statement in this matter, in which they informed that Wilfredo has an individual training and regeneration plan after the Paris Olympics. However, when it comes to the exact date of his debut, the club only wrote that it is planned for “one of the first matches PlusLigi”. However, it is not known which one.
During the match against Zawiercie, the Polsat commentator Sport Piotr Gruszka noticed that Leon was already slowly jumping and returning to the exercises during the warm-up, so maybe he has already made some progress. LUK will play their next match on Friday, September 20 at 8:30 p.m., when they will host Trefl Sopot. It is worth adding that the aforementioned Aaron Russell was absent from Warta Zawiercie, who went to his brother's wedding, as well as Mateusz Bieniek, who is still recovering from a foot injury sustained in Paris during the games.