Lodz already beat this Rzeszow team a week ago, and both sides were using their new-season squads. Rzeszow are still building almost a whole new team around a new pair of setters, while Lodz have a strong middle block and play in their own hall. The way I see it, this match turns on whether a young setter partnership can find its hitters against that block. That's why I'm siding with Lodz.
The meeting I mean is the final of the LOTTO Giganci Siatkowki pre-season tournament in Twardogora. Lodz won it 3-1, 25:22, 20:25, 25:21, 25:19. It was close, but it wasn't a fluke: they won three sets by between three and six points.
Rzeszow were runners-up last season, but the summer changed a lot. Katarzyna Wenerska, Laura Heyrman, Taylor Bannister, Nathalie Lemmens and Magda Kubas are all among the players who left. Jelena Blagojevic now runs the team with new setters Martyna Lazowska and Alicja Grabka, and Taylor Mims comes in at opposite. There's real talent there, but setter-to-hitter timing is usually the last thing to settle in a rebuild, and it's only early October.
Lodz went through their own upheaval last season and still finished fifth. This year they've added Magdalena Jurczyk to Anna Obiala and Sonia Stefanik, so all three of their middles are in Poland's national-team pool. That's exactly the unit that punishes predictable distribution from a new setter. Regiane Bidias stays on the outside, and Karla Antunovic sets for Elles Dambrink.
Both teams come in on eight days' rest after their friendlies, so freshness doesn't split them. Lodz have home court, and they've already shown how this matchup goes when they get the timing right.
