Projekt Warszawa and Warta Zawiercie stay unbeaten in CLVolleyM

Two heavyweight clashes with pool leaders' positions at stake opened the third leg of the CEV Champions League Volley 2025 - Men on Tuesday night. PGE Projekt Warszawa powered by Linus Weber beat 3-0 Berlin Recycling Volleys to stay unbeaten in Pool A. Once Allianz Milano and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie produced a thrilling five-setter won by the Polish side in Pool C.

PGE Projekt WARSZAWA vs BERLIN Recycling Volleys 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-22)

Projekt Warszawa and Berlin Recycling Volleys, two unbeaten teams of Pool A, locked horns at Torwar Hall in Warsaw, delivering a high-level volleyball show to fans gathered at the stands. The game started as a tight race, with the hosts having a slight advantage after ace serve from Artur Szalpuk. The guests reduced the gap, showing their potential with great plays from Tobias Krick (5 points) and Moritz Reichert (4). However, entering the decisive phase of the opener, Linus Weber's ace moved Warsaw again to a three-point lead at 19-16. Weber along with Artur Szalpuk were Warszawa's leaders from the beginning - only in the first part they tallied 8 and 7 points respectively with both of them recording 6 kills with 67% success in attack. Keeping the score safe, Projekt took the first set (25-22). 

The next part - similar to the previous one - was a tight point-by-point race. Both teams played focused, trying to minimize the number of their own errors. On Berlin Recycling Volleys' side Ruben Schott and Jake Hanes took the scoring guard (5 points apiece), once Linus Weber continued his impressive performance on Projekt Warszawa's side (8 points). For a long time neither team managed to take a significant advantage, if Warszaw managed to take even a two-point lead, Berlin quickly made it up until 17-17. Then slowly, but firmly the host built their advantage thanks to solid performance on the service line. Tobias Brandt's ace moved them to 23-20, once Artur Szalpuk's ace dotted the i's with his killing block (25-21).

Both teams were extremely determined and made the third set the most equal. At the early stage, Berlin Recycling Volley moved to 7-5 lead, but killing blocks from Kochanowski and Szalpuk made Warszawa to tie at 8-8. A nail-biting exchange of kills continued towards the entire set. Jake Hanes became the main Barlin's gun, contributing with 10 points only in this set and it was his ace to move Berlin in the decisive stage of the set to 21-19 lead. However, coach Piotr Graban called time-out and after it his team was on a roll, scoring five consecutive points moving to 24-21 lead - three of them were the result of their monster blocks. Berlin managed to deny one match point, but the killing spike from the center performed by Jakub Kochanowski sealed the deal and ended the game at 25-22. 

Linus Weber scored a match-high 20 points (4 aces, 13 kills - 67% success and 2 blocks) and was named the MVP. He was followed by Artur Szalpuk (11 points) and Jakub Kochanowski (10 points, including 4 blocks). On the other side of the net, Jake Hanes tallied 18 points for Berlin.

Allianz Milano - Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie 2-3 (25-17, 20-25, 24-26, 25-19, 12-15)

At e-work Arena Busto Arsizio held the clash of two undefeated teams in Pool C - Allianz Milano and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. The hosts started off on the right foot, taking a 6-2 lead after solid spikes from Ferre Reggers. It didn't discourage the guests, who fought hard to shorten the distance (9-7), eventually after Mateusz Bieniek's ace they tied at 11-11, but only for a brief moment. Milano answered quickly, jumping to 18-15 lead by Reggers (7 killing spikes out of 10 attempts in the opener). The hosts, who played almost flawless, improved further their advantage to close the set 25-17. 

Aluron Warta Zawiercie returned to the court with a bang. With great service runs from Jurii Gladyr and Miguel Tavares they took a 10-5 lead and kept the score safe for the entire set, completely controlling the situation on the court. Tavares led a well-balanced game, using the potential of his teammates. Bartosz Kwolek, Aaron Russel and Karol Butryn contributed with 4 points apiece to help Zawiercie close the set 25-20.

The third part turned into the most competitive one. It started with a tight race, but in the middle of the set with Edoardo Caneschi on the service line, Milano ran away with the score to 14-11. Zawiercie's head coach Michał Winiarski called a time-out and his team responded immiedietly winning three rallies back-to-back with spike from Karol Butryn and block by Matuesz Bieniek. The teams fought hard for every point and put a lot of service pressure. A thrilling race lasted until the end of the set, although Milano denied the first set point (24-23), Zawiercie won the set 26-24 after a too long spike from Yacine Louati.

Ferre Reggers who after three sets recorded impressive 70% success in attack (15 points) sparked back Milano. The hosts took a solid advantage after his ace at 13-7. The entire set was a true showdown of Milano, led by Reggers who scored as many as 14 points only in this set! Zawiercie tried to come back to the game, reducing the gap at 15-13, but it provoked Milano to speed things up. Reggers's block at 25-19, extended the game into a tie-break.

An ace serve from Porro kicked off the tie-break that turned into a fascinating point-by-point race. With a helping hand from Milano, who committed two mistakes, Zawiercie were one step ahead with a 9-7 lead. The guests put all their efforts to keep their advantage and find a way to stop Reggers, who was literally on fire that night. Zawiercie's triple block on Gardini gave them match points at 14-11, although they didn't use the first one, a service error from Tommaso Barotto ended the game in Zawiercie's favour at 15-12.

Aaron Russel who scored 19 points for Zawiercie (1 ace, 2 blocks, 16 kills - 52% success) received the MVP honours. An insane match-high 33 points was tallied by Ferre Reggers (2 aces, 3 blocks, 28 kills - 68% success).