Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in Poland. The matches of the Polish national team attract huge crowds of spectators. The same applies to the league and the Polish cup. The final of the Polish Cup, the second most important volleyball competition in Poland was last weekend. The players from Trefl Gdansk gave a reason for huge joy to their fans winning the final and bringing the cup to Tricity.
Polish Men’s Volleyball Cup
Polish Men’s Volleyball Cup is an annual competition which gathers the best teams in Poland. The first Polish Cup took place in 1932.
Since the beginning of the Cup, it has visited Tricity twice. First time was in 2015 when the team from Gdansk brought it home for the first time. Now the Cup is in Tricity for the second time in history, again thanks to Trefl Gdansk.
Trefl Gdansk
The story of Trefl Gdansk begins with its establishment in 2005. Since 2011 the Lions play in the highest Polish volleyball league – PlusLiga. The biggest achievements of the team are: 2nd place in the league in 2015, Polish Supercup in 2015 and Polish Cup in 2015 and 2018. The team’s home arena is Ergo Arena in Gdansk. The main coach of the team is Andre Anastasi, an Italian coach who had worked with Polish national team before moving to Tricity.
The road to the cup
Trefl Gdansk started their way up the ladder of the Polish Cup on 10th of January 2018. A total of 8 teams took part in quarter finals. Trefl Gdansk played against Stal AZS PWSZ Nysa. The Lions won this game comfortably 0:3 in sets. First part of the game the team from Gdansk won 19:25 and the second 17:25. Although they had some struggle underlining their win in the third set, they finished it with a score 24:26. After this game, the Lions could prepare for the final part of the competition which took place in Wroclaw on 27th and 28th of January.
Finals in Wroclaw
In the semi finals Trefl Gdansk faced ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle. Facing this multiple champions of Poland was definitely not the easiest task for the team from Tricity. Last year’s winners of the Polish Cup – ZAKSA begun this match showing their strength. In the first part of the game Trefl Gdansk lost 25:19. However, they didn’t gave up that easily and begun the second part of the game highly motivated. As a result the second set ended with a 23:25 result and a draw on the board. The two other sets were very leveled, but the team from Gdansk won all of them 23:25. As a result the match finished with a score 1:3 and Trefl Gdansk went through.
Trefl Gdansk – PGE Skra Belchatow
The final match of the contest Trefl Gdansk played with PGE Skra Belchatow. The team from Belchatow was also a very tough opponent. Thanks to the victory in the previous game, Trefl knew they can perform well. They had proved it already in the first part of the game winning it 25:21. Their good performance continued. As a result they won both second and the third set 25:22. The result 3:0 on the board meant one thing: The Polish Cup goes to Tricity!
The players won not only the cup, though. Damian Schulz became the MVP of the tournament. Piotr Nowakowski, Mateusz Mika, Fabian Majcherski and Artur Szalpuk all received prizes for the best players on their positions.
Next Matches
Yet, winning the cup doesn’t mean rest for the Lions. On Friday they play their next game in Katowice against GKS Katowice.
If you want to see them live, come to Ergo Arena on Wednesday, February the 7th. Trefl Gdansk is playing a home game against Jastrzebski Wegiel then.
Tickets
Tickets are available at: WWW.TREFL.TICKETSOFT.PL.
The tickets for matches cost from 5 PLN to 40 PLN. Children up to 13 years of age and disabled people pay only 2 PLN for the ticket. There are discounts for students and school groups.
If not via the internet – tickets are available at Ergo Arena’s cash desk and in a lot of different places like: hotel Haffner, Touristic Center in Sopot (Stowarzyszenie Turystyczne Sopot) and Basketball Shop ( Sklep Koszykarza) in Manhattan shopping center.
