Halfway through the group stage Champions League Jastrzębski Węgiel had all the points with only one set lost. In the fourth round of the competition, the Polish champions hosted the French Chaumont VB 52 at home, and they managed to defeat the team without losing a set. Unexpectedly, however, the match in Jastrzębie Zdrój turned out to be more difficult for Marcelo Mendez's team.
An unexpected horror during Jastrzębski Węgiel's match in the Champions League. 32:30 in the key set
However, this does not apply to the first set, which started and ended as everyone expected. All because Jastrzębski Węgiel was supposed to win this match smoothly, but the reality turned out to be different. However, Silvano Prandi's team turned out to be a demanding rival for the hosts.
In the opening game, the Jastrzębie team scored three points in a row to make it 7:4 thanks to two effective attacks Tomasz Fornal. Since then, the Polish champions have only increased their advantage. After a successful block by Timothee Carle they were leading 14:9, later after the French attack it was even 19:13. The hosts did not give it up and after another confident attack by Fornal, they won by 20.
In the second set, however, the French led from the beginning to the very end. After an effective block by Mathis, Henno started with the score 0:2. Pierre Toledo's service ace gave the guests a three-point advantage (4:7), then Mathis Henno added a point serve at 9:13, and the hosts seemed to be thoroughly surprised by the good play of their rivals from France, who could not be stopped in this game .
After a broken attack and later serve by Arkadiusz Żakieta, it was already 18:23, but all was not lost for Jastrzębie. Even when, after Tomasz Fornal's missed serve, the guests had four set points (20:24). However, then Luciano Vicentin and Anton Brehme ended their next attacks, Łukasz Kaczmarek blocked his opponent, and finally Norbert Huber led to a draw with a point serve. But there was no happy ending in this fairy tale, because Lukas Maase successfully finished the next ball, and on the fifth ball of the set, Pierre Toledo ended the second game with an effective counterattack (24:26). Chaumont volleyball players used as much as 88%. first actions in this set.
In the third set, the excited French did not give up and fought an extremely fierce point-for-point fight with the Polish champions. Without any major advantages on both sides, it went on until the very end, and the fans in Jastrzębie Zdrój watched game at a really good level. When Lukas Maase finished passing the ball at 20:21, the hosts' coach Marcelo Mendez called for a timeout. Two balls later, however, it was already 22:21 and then the game was interrupted by Silvano Prandi.
Łukasz Kaczmarek's service ace interrupted the neck-and-neck race for Jastrzębie's 23rd point. A moment later, Luciano Vicentin scored two set points for the hosts (24:22), and the Jastrzębski Węgiel volleyball players were teasing each other with the visiting coach. At 24:23, there was an extremely fierce exchange, which ended with a powerful block from Jastrzębie on Niko Suihkonen, thanks to which the third game fell to the Polish champions.
In the fourth installment, emotions were at their best. After Kaczmarek's effective counterattack at 8:5, coach Chaumont asked for a break. It paid off because guests came back again games. After Fornal and Kaczmarek's attacking mistakes, they took the lead 12:11, and a fantastic counterattack by Mathis Henno gave them two points advantage (12:14). The guests had a leader in the person of substitute Jacob Pasteur. It was his spectacular attacks that gave the score 15:19, which brought the guests much closer to the tie-break.
But just like in the second set, the Polish champions did not want to give up. Norbert Huber's powerful block on Pasteur gave the hosts contact (20:21), and Łukasz Kaczmarek even had the ball up for a draw, but he hit the ball out of the pass. The Chaumont players were two points ahead and did not finish the set. Anton Brehme's block resulted in a draw at 23, which resulted in an advantage play. Everything ended in a draw after 30:30, when first the Jastrzębie team stopped Jacob Pasteur with a triple block, and in the next action the same volleyball player attacked the antenna (32:30).
They scored the most points for Jastrzębski Węgiel this year match Łukasz Kaczmarek (24) and Tomasz Fornal (21). The most effective players for the guests were Mathis Henno and Pierre Toledo, the authors of 18 points.
After an extremely exciting match, Jastrzębski Węgiel defeated Chaumont VB 52 3:1 in their own hall and can still boast a set of four victories and twelve points in this edition of the Champions League. In the next match, on January 16, the Jastrzębie team will play away against Lewski Sofia.
Jastrzębski Węgiel – Chaumont VB 52 3:1 (25:20, 24:26, 25:23, 32:30)
Jastrzębski: Kaczmarek (24 points), Toniutti, Carle (4), Brehme (10), Fornal (21), Huber (11), Popiwczak (libero) and Vicentin (6), Finoli, Żakieta (1), Kufka.
Chaumont: Holdaway (6), Worsley (2), Henno (18), Toledo (18), Suihkonen (6), Maase (10), Closter (libero) and Pasteur (10), Lefaivre, Lietzke.