Denso and Saga stay unbeaten in SV.League as Polish Super Cup headlines busy volleyball week

This weekend brings a busy slate of volleyball across Japan, Poland and Italy, with unbeaten records, early-season trophies and heavyweight matchups all on the line. In Japan's women's SV.League, Denso Airybees Koriyama and defending champions Saga Hisamitsu Springs are among the teams still unbeaten after two matches. Denso will host Saitama Ageo Medics in a double header at Horaiya Bonds Arena on Friday and Saturday after winning both opening matches on the road 3-0 and 3-2. Opposite Myat Yee Mon, Colombian outside hitter Amanda Coneo and Brazilian setter Roberta Ratzke have been central to Denso's start. Saga opened the historic new season with two wins over Aleeza Aichi in Thailand, 3-1 and 3-2, with Latvian opposite Marta Levinska leading the attack. Last season, Hisamitsu Springs won all four SV.League meetings with Airybees, but the most recent one was pushed to five sets. That detail gives this weekend's matchup added weight: Denso have not yet overturned Saga over a series, but they have closed the gap. The men's SV.League enters its second weekend after a opening round that featured only one double header. Tokyo Great Bears were forced to five sets by rookies Hokkaido Yellow Stars in the first match before responding with a convincing straight-set win in the second. Tokyo's squad includes Polish opposite Bartosz Kurek, Slovenian middle Jan Kozamernik, outside hitter Masahiro Yanagida and Argentina's Luciano Vicentin. Great Bears now visit Entrio for a double header against Wolfdogs Nagoya, who finished fourth last season and won the Emperor's Cup. Nagoya have built a strong roster around opposite Kento Miyaura, setter Hideomi Fukatsu, Polish middle Norbert Huber and new arrivals such as French libero Jenia Grebennikov, German middle Anton Brehme and Czech outside Donovan Dzavoronok. Last season, Nagoya and Tokyo met six times in SV.League and split the wins 3-3. In Poland, the women's Super Cup is the highlight of the week. PGE Budowlani Lodz, the national champions and cup winners, face defending Super Cup holders DevelopRes Rzeszow on Saturday in Czestochowa. The match is a remake of last season's TAURON Liga final, which went to a fifth-match decider. DevelopRes are still unbeaten in the Polish league this season, leading the standings at 3-0, with international stars such as Julita Piasecka, Netherlands' Marrit Jasper and Laura Jansen, and USA's Taylor Mims. Budowlani sit fifth at 2-1 with Swiss opposite Maja Storck, Romanian captain Rodica Buterez, Slovenian middle Sasa Planinsec and experienced setter Katarzyna Wenerska. Last season the teams met eight times, with Lodz winning five: one in the TAURON Liga regular season, one in the Poland Cup semifinals and three in the best-of-five championship series. The men's Super Cup follows on Sunday in Czestochowa, where BOGDANKA LUK Lublin meet Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. Warta's lineup features 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 than in 2026-2026, when they took FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship bronze, CEV Champions League silver and their first national title. However, they began the new season with a shocking straight-set loss to newly promoted GKS Katowice before beating ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle. BOGDANKA's roster includes Wilfredo Leon, Bulgarian middle Aleks Grozdanov, Kewin Sasak, Marcin Komenda and new Japanese additions Ran Takahashi and Tomohiro Ogawa. They lead the TAURON Liga after straight-set wins over ZAKSA and Energa Trefl Gdansk. Last season, Warta won five of seven PlusLiga meetings with Lublin, including three in the best-of-five championship playoff. In Italy, Itas Trentino Trento host Cisterna Volley in the opening match of the second leg of the SuperLega regular season. Both teams won 3-0 in the first leg. Trentino swept Valsa Group Modena away, with French opposite Theo Faure scoring 23 points alongside Riccardo Sbertoli, Alessandro Michieletto, Daniele Lavia, Brazil's Flavio Gualberto, Serbia's Aleksandar Nedeljkovic and libero Gabriele Laurenzano. Cisterna, featuring 35-year-old Filippo Lanza and 19-year-old French talent Noa Duflos-Rossi, beat Allianz Milan 3-0 at home and moved to the top of the standings after the first leg. Last season, Trentino shut out Cisterna in both head-to-head meetings. Finally, the 11th-leg TAURON Liga match between PGE Projekt Warsaw and Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie has been moved to next Wednesday because of Warta's participation in the 2026 FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship in December. Projekt, bronze medalists, have a star-studded squad with 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. They opened the season with a four-set home win over Energa Indykpol AZS Olsztyn. Warta were stunned by a straight-set away loss to GKS Katowice before claiming a four-set home win over ZAKSA. Projekt swept both meetings last season and lead the all-time league head-to-head 14-9.