ZAKSA emerge victorious from all-Polish semi-final to fight for the second #CLVolleyM crown

Emotions ran high as the pursuit to become the SuperFinalists of the CEV Champions League Volley 2022 - Men reached a climax with two return semi-final clashes played on Thursday. The all-Polish battle between the reigning #CLVolleyM champions Grupa Azoty Zaksa Kędzierzyn Koźle and Jastrzębski Węgiel at Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle opened the thrilling night. Zaksa, who won the first match 3-0 needed to win only two sets to book their spot in #SuperFinalsLjubljana what they quickly did and for the second time in their history they will fight for the European crown. Although the game went into tie-break, Zaksa without their leaders on the court managed to emerge victorious to end the match in the best way and start their double celebration.

Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn Koźle vs Jastrzębski Węgiel 3-2 (25-15, 25-21, 24-26, 21-25, 15-11)

The domestic rivals know each other extremely well and although Grupa Azoty Zaksa Kędzierzyn-Koźle have a much better record against Jastrzębski Węgiel in recent encounters, both teams entered the court highly-motivated. However, a phenomenal performance on the service line (eight aces in total in the opener) became the key in the first set. The hosts jumped to 12-7 lead after two aces from Łukasz Kaczmarek and since that moment the team from Kędzierzyn Koźle didn't look back, even if Hadrava and Szymura tried their best on the other side of the court. Zaksa further improved their advantage to 21-13 after four consecutive aces from Aleksander Śliwka. Thus, the defending champions made important step towards their progress to the final.

Having their back against the wall, Jastrzębski Węgiel tried to keep the pace with Zaksa, who took an early 6-2 lead. Even if Jastrzębski managed to shorten the distance, the team from Kędzierzyn Koźle was dominant in all components and quickly gained full control on the court to close the set and stamp their ticket to #SuperFinals Ljubljana.

In the third part, coach Gheorghe Cretu decided to change his line-up, giving the opportunity to play other players. The game continued as a fierce battle that went into extra-time. Eventually, the set was won by Jastrzębski who were eager to still fight at least for a match win. Boyer was a leader of the visiting team, scoring as many as eight points.

A solid performance from Jastrzębski Węgiel was enough against the 'second squad' of Zaksa, who were committing more of mistakes, to extend the game into a tie-break. In the fifth part, after a competitive beginning, Zaksa jumped to a 10-6 lead to close the game on their favour after Żaliński's spike and start their victory dance! Łukasz Kaczmarek, who performed only in the first two sets scoring 11 points and recording 64% in attack, was named MVP. However, Boyer tallied a match-high 17 points, once Żaliński was a top scorer of Zaksa with 15 points.