This is Blair Lambert’s VolleyballMag.com weekly men’s professional volleyball report, featuring Americans around the world. Got a note about a player or a comment for Blair? Email him at blairlambert2@gmail.com.
TJ DeFalco and Asseco Resovia Rzeszów entered last week with two important matches on their schedule. ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, winners of last year’s PlusLiga and the last two CEV Champions Leagues, awaited the club on November 2. That would be followed up with Jastrzębski Węgiel, the team at the top of the standings and the winners of the Polish Super Cup a week ago.
Resovia came into the week with a 6-0 record and 17 of a possible 18 points in the standings. The only other time the club had won its first six was in 2014. That team had the current setter, Fabian Drzyzga, along with Paul Lotman and Russell Holmes. That was also the last Resovia team to win the PlusLiga title. Resovia also won the silver in the Champions League, losing to a Zenit Kazan team with Matt Anderson. The club is not taking part in the Champions League this year, has put together a good run to start the season and push for another PlusLiga crown.
The CEV Champions League starts the fourth round, or group stage, this week. The Berlin Recycling Volleys opened up its European campaign on November 8 with a come-from-behind win over Hebar Pazardzhik of Bulgaria in five sets. Cody Kesell was a substitute in the first and fourth sets, scoring on a block and a kill in a 23-25, 23-25, 25-17, 28-26, 15-12 win.
Radoslav Parapunov scored 12 points for Vojvodina NS Seme Novi Sad of Bulgaria in a 25-23, 25-19, 25-20 loss to Jastrzębski Węgiel in the other match on November 8.
Gabi Garcia, Aleksander Nikolov and Lube Civitanova will face Benfica Lisbon on November 9. Dave Smith, Erik Shoji, and ZAKSA will also play on November 9 against CEZ Karlovarsko of the Czech Republic.
In what could be the most competitive and most anticipated match of the first leg will take place on November 10 when Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie hosts Halkbank Ankara. A lot of Polish fans have expressed discontent with Micah Ma’a for breaking his contract with GKS Katowice and heading to Turkey to play for Halkbank. The Turkish club is undefeated domestically, but hasn’t faced a team as talented as Zawiercie. While Zawiercie has more depth, Halkbank will have the best player on the court in Nimir Abdel Aziz.
A match to pay attention to in the CEV Cup, the second-tier…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…