Denso and Saga Unbeaten in SV.League as Poland Super Cup Opens the Trophy Race

Two rounds of the 2026-2027 volleyball season have now been completed across several national leagues, and the early picture shows no club has built a safe margin. Two unbeaten women's teams in Japan are set to meet at Horaiya Bonds Arena, the first trophy of the Polish season will be handed out this weekend, and the Italian SuperLega second round opens with a clash between two sides that swept their previous opponents.

Women's SV.League: Denso and Saga still unbeaten

Denso Airybees Koriyama and defending champions Saga Hisamitsu Springs are among the teams yet to lose in the women's SV.League after two rounds. Denso will host their opponent at Horaiya Bonds Arena on Friday and Saturday, having won both opening matches on the road against Saitama Ageo Medics 3-0 and 3-2. Their production came from opposite Myat Yee Mon, Colombian outside hitter Amanda Coneo and Brazilian setter Roberta Ratzke.

A week earlier, Saga won both matches of the historic season opener staged in Thailand against Aleeza Aichi, 3-1 and 3-2, with Latvian opposite Marta Levinska leading the way. Last season Hisamitsu Springs won all four SV.League encounters with Airybees, but in the most recent meeting they were pushed to five sets. Watching Denso's two away matches, the notable detail was their handling of deciding sets: the team no longer lost rhythm after dropping one, something that cost them in head-to-head meetings last season. The double header at Horaiya Bonds Arena therefore no longer looks like a fixture with a predetermined outcome.

Men's SV.League: Great Bears meet Wolfdogs Nagoya again

The men's SV.League moves into its second weekend with a full schedule after the season served off last week with only one double header. Home side and top contender Tokyo Great Bears were forced to five sets by rookies Hokkaido Yellow Stars in the first match, but in the second the capital squad, featuring Polish opposite Bartosz Kurek, Slovenian middle Jan Kozamernik, outside hitter Masahiro Yanagida and Argentina's Luciano Vicentin, delivered a convincing straight-set win.

Great Bears now visit Entrio for a double header at Wolfdogs Nagoya, who finished fourth last season and lifted the Emperor's Cup. For the new campaign 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, a result showing neither side holds a clear tactical edge in this matchup.

Polish Women's Super Cup: Budowlani and DevelopRes renew rivalry

In Poland, the women's Super Cup match is the highlight of the week. The first trophy of the season will go to 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, which was pushed to a fifth-match decider.

DevelopRes, featuring international stars such as Julita Piasecka, the Netherlands' Marrit Jasper and Laura Jansen, and USA's Taylor Mims, are still undefeated in the domestic league and lead the standings on a 3-0 record. Budowlani, with Swiss opposite Maja Storck, Romanian national team captain Rodica Buterez and Slovenian middle Sasa Planinsec, conducted by experienced setter Katarzyna Wenerska, stand fifth on 2-1. Last season the two sides met eight times, with Budowlani winning five, including one TAURON Liga regular-season match, one Poland Cup semifinal and three in the best-of-five championship series.

Polish Men's Super Cup: Lublin face Zawiercie

The Super Cup weekend continues on Sunday with the men's match. Czestochowa will welcome defending Super Cup and Poland Cup winners BOGDANKA LUK Lublin and reigning national champions Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. Warta boast a remarkable lineup with Portuguese setter Miguel Tavares, opposites Bartlomiej Boladz and Italian international Kamil Rychlicki, outside hitters Tomasz Fornal, Bartosz Kwolek and USA's Aaron Russell, middles Jakub Kochanowski and Mateusz Bieniek, and libero Jakub Popiwczak.

The 2026-2026 season was the most successful in Warta's history, bringing FIVB Men's Club World Championship bronze and CEV Champions League silver alongside their first national title. They opened the new season with a shocking straight-set loss to newly promoted GKS Katowice before beating 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 at the top of the TAURON Liga table with straight-set wins over ZAKSA and Energa Trefl Gdansk. Last season Warta won five of seven PlusLiga meetings with Lublin, including three in the championship playoffs.

Italian SuperLega: Trentino and Cisterna open the return leg

The match between Itas Trentino Trento and Cisterna Volley opens the return leg of the SuperLega regular season, featuring two teams that claimed straight-set wins last weekend. Trentino, one of the most decorated clubs in men's volleyball history, swept Valsa Group Modena 3-0 away, with French opposite Theo Faure scoring 23 points alongside teammates such as Riccardo Sbertoli, Alessandro Michieletto, Daniele Lavia, Brazil's Flavio Gualberto, Serbia's Aleksandar Nedeljkovic and libero Gabriele Laurenzano.

Cisterna, with 35-year-old star Filippo Lanza and France's 19-year-old prospect Noa Duflos-Rossi in the outside hitter department, surprised Allianz Milan with a convincing straight-set home victory that lifted them to the top of the standings after the first leg. Trentino shut out Cisterna in both head-to-head duels last season, which is the basis for judging that this return leg is unlikely to produce a surprise result despite Cisterna's current form.

TAURON Liga: round 11 heavyweight clash rescheduled

The round 11 TAURON Liga fixture between PGE Projekt Warsaw and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie has been moved to next Wednesday because of Warta's participation in the FIVB Men's Club World Championship in December 2026. It is a major clash between two teams that have medalled in each of the last three Polish league seasons, according to TAURON Liga organisers' statistics.

Projekt, the bronze medallists, field a star-studded squad with setter Jan Firlej, Italian opposite Yuri Romano, outside hitters Aleksander Sliwka, Bartosz Bednorz and France's Kevin Tillie, middles Bartlomiej Lemanski, Karol Klos and Ukraine's Yurii Semeniuk, and libero Damian Wojtaszek. Projekt started the 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. Last season the capital club swept both meetings with Zawiercie in straight sets and lead the all-time league head-to-head 14-9.

What to watch

Looking at this week's schedule, the common thread across almost every major fixture is that the gaps between teams are narrowing. Denso lost all four meetings with Saga last season, yet their away wins in the opening round show that gap is no longer intact. Warta had won five of seven against Lublin, yet fell in straight sets to a newly promoted side in round one. The teams rated higher are entering a stretch where the smallest error can decide a title, and this month's congested calendar deserves closer attention than any transfer list.