The world’s top-ranked team is set to face reigning world champions Italy for the VNL gold medal match this Sunday.
Poland has secured a medal position in the men`s Volleyball Nations League, delivering a dominant 3-0 (28-26, 25-19, 25-21) victory over Preliminary Phase winners Brazil in Saturday`s second semifinal held in Ningbo, China. This marks Poland`s sixth consecutive VNL medal, having only missed out on the inaugural edition in 2018. In Sunday`s ultimate match, the world`s number one team will clash with current world champions Italy, who earlier today defeated Slovenia in the first semifinal. Poland aims to capture their second VNL title, following their 2023 triumph, while Italy has already guaranteed their first-ever medal in the competition`s history and will now vie for gold. For the third-place playoff, Brazil seeks their second VNL podium finish after their 2021 gold, as Slovenia hopes to secure their inaugural VNL hardware, building on their two fourth-place finishes in 2021 and 2024.
While kill blocks, serving aces, and unforced errors were relatively even, Poland`s offensive power was the key differentiator in their win over Brazil. The European champions accumulated an impressive 42 points in attack, significantly outperforming their South American rivals who managed only 32.
Opposite Kewin Sasak led the scoring for Poland with 19 points, showcasing an exceptional 81% spiking success rate. He also contributed a point from a serve and another from a block. Middle blocker and captain Jakub Kochanowski added to the double digits with three kill blocks, two aces, and five successful attacks at a 71% efficiency. Substitute outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk, introduced in the second and third sets, made the most of his six attack opportunities, converting all of them for a perfect 100% offensive success rate.
“I am so proud of our team, because we did an amazing job in serving, blocking, spiking and reception… every element. So, I am so happy, I am proud of the team and I hope that we will play a good game again tomorrow,” Poland’s setter Marcin Komenda told VBTV. “It will be a really tough game, because Italy is so strong. So, we have to be ready to fight and prepare for a long game, because Italy will push us from the beginning. I hope that, like today and like the last game against Japan, it will be nice.”
For Brazil, three players achieved spiking success rates around 60%: veteran middle blocker Flavio Gualberto, 23-year-old opposite Darlan Souza, and 21-year-old outside hitter Arthur Bento Buczmiejuk. However, only Darlan reached double-digit scoring with 16 points, also contributing two aces and a kill block.
“Tomorrow we are going to have another match and it is really important to shoot for a medal to pay off for what we did in the full championship. I would say we deserve this medal,” said Brazil’s outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli. “I think today we made too many mistakes in spiking maybe, because we had a lot of opportunities through the game. Their opposite was very good and we could not stop him really well. I think these were the two main things…”
Upcoming Matches
The final day of the tournament in Ningbo will commence with the bronze medal match between Brazil and Slovenia at 15:00 local time (07:00 UTC). The highly anticipated gold medal clash for the 2025 VNL title between Poland and Italy is scheduled for 19:00 local time (11:00 UTC).
Jasper Thornfield 
Oliver Wrenwick