Editor’s note: Blair Lambert covers international men’s volleyball for VolleyballMag.com, focusing on Americans playing abroad and will have updates throughout the professional 2022-23 season. Got a note about a player or a comment? Email blairlambert2@gmail.com
American players kicked off their leagues in Brazil and Japan last week as play throughout Europe continued. Micah Ma’a made another statement in Türkiye, Gabi Garcia came off the bench to jump start a comeback in Italy, TJ DeFalco remained perfect in Poland, Micah Christenson got his team back on track in Russia, and there is a new team back at the top of the standings in France.
The Polish Super Cup takes place Wednesday between ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Jastrzębski Węgiel. It pits last season’s PlusLiga Champion against the winner of last year’s Polish Cup, the only competition that ZAKSA competed in last season and did not win.
Since ZAKSA won both the PlusLiga and the Polish Cup last year, Jastrzębski was chosen to take part as runners-up of the PlusLiga. Dave Smith and Erik Shoji’s team defeated Jastrzębski in the final of the PlusLiga Playoffs, the final of the Polish Cup, and the semifinals of the CEV Champions League last season.
Jastrzębski defeated ZAKSA in three sets in last year’s Super Cup. This came after upsetting ZAKSA in the finals of the 2021 PlusLiga playoffs. Jastrzębski comes into the match with a 5-0 record in the league and a full 15 points. ZAKSA is currently 3-2 and down in sixth position.
Competing in multiple competitions domestically and abroad poses a number of challenges for players and clubs. A perfect example of this is seen in the week that CV Guagas endured:
The club from Las Palmas, Spain, had a match in Mallorca on October 15. Matt Knigge and Brandon Rattray flew back from Mallorca to the airport just outside of Las Palmas the day after the match on October 16, having to stop in Madrid along the way. The next day they flew back to Madrid to catch a connecting flight to Istanbul. After staying the night in Istanbul, the team caught a flight from Istanbul to Varna, Bulgaria on October 18. They traveled by bus from Varna to Burgas, where they played their CEV Challenge Cup match on October 20. On October 21, the team left Burgas to go back to Varna on a bus. They then flew to Istanbul, then to Madrid, and finally landed back just outside of Las Palmas that night. This full day of travel preceded a league…
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