Polish Super Cup and SV.League Showdowns: This Week in World Volleyball

Denso Airybees Koriyama and defending champions Saga Hisamitsu Springs are two of the undefeated teams in the Japanese women's SV.League after two matches played. Denso will host this double header at the Horaiya Bonds Arena on Friday and Saturday, after winning both games of their opening double header against Saitama Ageo Medics on the road, 3-0 and 3-2. Opposite Myat Yee Mon, Colombian outside hitter Amanda Coneo and Brazilian setter Roberta Ratzke provided the backbone of that run, keeping Denso's attacking rhythm steady from the very start of the campaign, a phase in which most teams usually drop points while adjusting to new systems. On the other side of the net, Saga Hisamitsu Springs produced an impressive opening weekend, winning both matches against Aleeza Aichi in Thailand. It was the first season opener in league history staged outside Japan. The 3-1 and 3-2 scorelines reflected the true competitiveness of both contests, even though Saga entered as the clear favourite. Latvian opposite Marta Levinska remains the engine of the defending champions, and her role in the Hisamitsu Springs attacking system is close to irreplaceable. The head-to-head record is the detail worth watching. Last season, Hisamitsu Springs won all four SV.League encounters with Airybees. In the most recent meeting, however, Denso pushed them to five sets. That is a signal the gap between the two sides has narrowed considerably, and this double header at the Horaiya Bonds Arena will be a genuine test for both. The Japanese men's SV.League is about to move into full swing for its second weekend, after the new season served off last weekend with only one double header. In that fixture, hosts and favourites Tokyo Great Bears were forced to five sets by rookies Hokkaido Yellow Stars in the first match, before the stellar squad from the capital delivered a convincing straight-set win in the second. The Great Bears roster features Polish opposite Bartosz Kurek, Slovenian middle Jan Kozamernik, and outside hitters Masahiro Yanagida and Argentina's Luciano Vicentin. Great Bears will now visit the Entrio for a double header at Wolfdogs Nagoya, who finished fourth last season and conquered the Emperor's Cup trophy. For the new season, Wolfdogs have assembled a strong roster with opposite Kento Miyaura, setter Hideomi Fukatsu, Polish middle blocker Norbert Huber and incoming transfers such as French libero Jenia Grebennikov, German middle Anton Brehme and Czech outside Donovan Dzavoronok. Last season, Nagoya and Tokyo met six times in the SV.League and split the wins three to three. The Poland Super Cup is undoubtedly the highlight of this week in Polish women's volleyball, as the first trophy of the season will be claimed by either national champions and cup winners PGE Budowlani Lodz or defending super cup holders DevelopRes Rzeszow. Saturday's showdown in Czestochowa is a remake of last season's TAURON Liga final, a series pushed to a fifth-match decider. DevelopRes, featuring international stars such as Julita Piasecka, the Netherlands' Marrit Jasper and Laura Jansen, or USA's Taylor Mims, are still undefeated in the Polish league this season and lead the standings on a 3-0 win-loss record. Budowlani, meanwhile, sit fifth on 2-1 with Swiss opposite Maja Storck, Romanian national team captain Rodica Buterez and Slovenian middle Sasa Planinsec, conducted by experienced setter Katarzyna Wenerska. Last season, Budowlani and DevelopRes met as many as eight times, with the squad from Lodz winning five of those encounters: one during the TAURON Liga regular season, one in the Poland Cup semifinals and three in the best-of-five championship series. The Poland Super Cup weekend continues on Sunday with the men's showdown. The city of Czestochowa will welcome defending trophy laureates and Poland Cup winners BOGDANKA LUK Lublin and reigning national champions Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. With a remarkable lineup featuring Portuguese setter Miguel Tavares, opposites Bartlomiej Boladz and Italian international Kamil Rychlicki, outsides Tomasz Fornal, Bartosz Kwolek and USA's Aaron Russell, middles Jakub Kochanowski and Mateusz Bieniek, and libero Jakub Popiwczak, Warta appear even stronger this season than in their most successful campaign ever, 2026-2026. That year they collected FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship bronze and CEV Champions League silver, in addition to their first ever national title. They started the new season, however, with a shocking straight-set loss to newly promoted GKS Katowice, before recovering with a win over ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle. BOGDANKA's roster, with Wilfredo Leon, Bulgarian middle Aleks Grozdanov, Kewin Sasak, Marcin Komenda and new Japanese additions Ran Takahashi and Tomohiro Ogawa, looks no less impressive. They have already taken control of the top of the TAURON Liga table with straight-set wins over ZAKSA and Energa Trefl Gdansk. Last season, Warta won five of the seven PlusLiga meetings with Lublin, including three in the best-of-five championship playoff. The match between Itas Trentino Trento and Cisterna Volley will open the second leg of the new Italian SuperLega regular season, featuring two of the teams that celebrated straight-set victories in the first leg last weekend. Trentino, one of the most decorated clubs in the history of men's volleyball, mastered a 3-0 sweep of their road game with Valsa Group Modena. French opposite Theo Faure led the way with 23 points, assisted by star teammates such as Riccardo Sbertoli, Alessandro Michieletto, Daniele Lavia, Brazil's Flavio Gualberto, Serbia's Aleksandar Nedeljkovic and libero Gabriele Laurenzano. Cisterna, featuring 35-year-old star Filippo Lanza and France's 19-year-old hopeful Noa Duflos-Rossi in the outside hitter department, surprised visitors Allianz Milan with a convincing straight-set home victory that propelled them to the top of the current standings after the first leg of action. In both head-to-head duels last season, Trentino shut out Cisterna. The 11th-leg TAURON Liga fixture between PGE Projekt Warsaw and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie was moved to next Wednesday because of the latter's participation in the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship in December. This is a big clash between two teams that have medalled at each of the last three editions of the Polish league. Bronze medallists Projekt, with a star-studded squad featuring setter Jan Firlej, Italian opposite Yuri Romano, outsides Aleksander Sliwka, Bartosz Bednorz and France's Kevin Tillie, middles Bartlomiej Lemanski, Karol Klos and Ukraine's Yurii Semeniuk, and libero Damian Wojtaszek, will welcome defending champions Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, starring Portuguese setter Miguel Tavares, opposites Bartlomiej Boladz and Italian international Kamil Rychlicki, outsides Tomasz Fornal, Bartosz Kwolek and USA's Aaron Russell, middles Jakub Kochanowski and Mateusz Bieniek, and libero Jakub Popiwczak, among others. Projekt started the new season with a four-set home win over Energa Indykpol AZS Olsztyn, while Warta were stunned by an away shutout from newly promoted GKS Katowice, before claiming a four-set home win over ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle. The team from the capital swept both games against their opponents from Zawiercie last season in straight sets and lead the all-time head-to-head in the league by 14-9 in wins.