You could honestly make a movie about this match. During the first two sets, Zaksa couldn’t do anything right and it seemed like they were going to fall quickly and painfully.

Jastrzebski Wegiel showed their determination right from the beginning. They scored 3:0 and even though Zaksa catched them quickly (3:3, 6:6), it did not last too long. After the first TTO, guests gained a leverage that only started to enlarge more and more. Block and service –  those were the strongest weapons for Jastrzebski Wegiel and Zaksa had to deal with a poor reception and weak attack. Simon Tischer closed this part with block (25:18).

The second set was quite similar. Equal result during the first half of the game (11:11) and later on Jastrzebie started to drive away. In Zaksa especially Felipe Fonteles couldn’t find his regular rhythm. The atmosphere was quite tense on their site. The hosts “woke up” for a moment, but it was not early enough and despite of catching opponents with attack and service (19:20), Bernardi’s team finished this set 25:23.

The third set also started with a similar result of both teams (6:6, 14:14). For the first time that night, Zaksa managed to earn some leading and Fonteles showed his proper quality of service. Also Zaksa’s wings began to work and their leverage was only bigger and the attack got stronger. Pawel Zagumny was changed by Grzegorz Pilarz and it was a crucial moment for this whole game. Zaksa won this set 25:21 and reopened the door for winning that night.

Later on, we could notice how huge role is playing by psychology in volleyball game. Zaksa strongly believed in victory and Jastrzebie could not get out of their head this failure from the previous part. This caused an improvement of Zaksa. This time Jastrzebie was the one with the reception issues and on the opposite, Kedzierzyn Kozle was doing all better and better. Because of that, tie break was only a matter of time.

In this last set, Zaksa practically didn’t give a chance for Jastrzebie. They took a lead (4:1, 8:2) and nothing could stop them. This game showed us an incredible nature of volleyball – everything can change in any moment and you can basically come back from hell and defeat your rival in the end.  Now Zaksa is one victory away from an advance to great final and meet Resovia Rzeszow.

ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle – Jastrzebski Wegiel 3:2 (18:25, 23:25, 25:21, 25:19, 15:6)
MVP: Grzegorz Pilarz

 

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