Bronze medal match win sees Jastrzębski finish the season on a high in the #CLVolleyM

Jastrzębski Węgiel finished on a high and overcame the disappointment of their elimination in the semi-final of the Final Four of this season’s CEV Champions League Men, to secure the bronze medals with a 3:1 (25:22; 26:24; 20:25; 25:18) win over Halkbank Ankara in the penultimate match of the season.

After missing the chance to secure their third consecutive appearance in the final of the CEV Champions League Men, Jastrzębski Węgiel wanted to finish the season on a high and secure their third consecutive medal in the competition, facing Halkbank Ankara in the bronze medal match.

Surely, the loss against Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie was on the Polish side’s mind, a fantastic turnaround, after Jastrzębski secured the first two sets, only to concede the next three and miss out in the fight for the title.

But they looked more determined than the Turkish side, themselves having conceded a loss against Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia on Friday, starting the first set better, just like they did against Zawiercie on Saturday.

As Tomasz Fornal scored six points and Lukasz Kaczmarek added four more, Jastrzębski provided a fantastic first set, with a 75% attacking efficiency, one ace from Timothee Carle and eight errors from their opponents, to properly dominate.

Ankara themselves had a 59% attacking efficiency, with Marek Sotola also delivering six points, but their errors proved more costly, as Jastrzębski pulled away midway in the first set, 16:12, eventually taking a 25:22 win.

In his last match for Jastrzębski, having announced his departure this summer, Fornal continued in the second set, which was tighter, with the Polish side needing a fantastic finish.

Fornal scored seven points, Kaczmarek added nine more, including two aces, while Jastrzębski delivered some key kill blocks, which helped them mount an interesting comeback.

While Ankara led throughout the whole set and had a 21:16 lead late in its business end, Jastrzębski rallied back and sealed a 26:24 win, as Fornal made a key block, bringing the Polish team even closer to the win.

But once again, just like on Saturday, Jastrzębski started to lose steam in the third set. From a 75% attacking efficiency in the first set and a 45% in the second one, the Polish side delivered only 32% of their attacks.

And that was their undoing, as Halkbank once again took early control of the set, but this time did not look back until the end. Sotola and Dirk Kooy had 13 points between them, as Ankara made only five errors, registered two kill blocks and a 63% attacking efficiency.

Thanks to their 25:20 win, they extended their hopes by at least one set more, with the Turkish side picking up the momentum and improving on a set-by-set basis, as their service was also better, with Yoandy Leal and Marek Sotola each registering two aces by the end of the third set.

Yet Jastrzębski proved they learnt something from their woes from the previous match and never let Ankara took back control of the match.

The Polish side, with Fornal in fantastic form, took an early 6:3 lead, which they worked on managing until the end of the set. Nothing which Ankara tried to do disrupted that, as Jastrzębski opened the maximum lead, 18:13, in the last part of the set.

And with Fornal winning the last point with a fantastic attack – delivering his last point in Jastrzębski Węgiel’s shirt, the Polish side secured a 25:18 win, to clinch the bronze medal, as himself, Kaczmarek and Carle ended up with 23, 19 and 18 points respectively.

Jastrzębski finished for the fifth time on the podium in the European premium competition, with the third place sealed for the third time, after the 2013/14 and 2020/21 season.