Gresik Petrokimia Opens Opportunity to Qualify for Final Four Proliga 2025

PALEMBANG, KOMPAS – The Gresik Petrokimia Pupuk Indonesia women's volleyball team has opened up the opportunity to advance to the final four of the 2025 Proliga volleyball league. The opportunity opened up after they successfully defeated the team that was mostly filled with U-21 women's national volleyball team players, Yogya Falcons with a landslide score of 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-20) on the second day of the last week of the 2025 Proliga regular round in Palembang, South Sumatra, Saturday (22/2/2025).

The victory earned Gresik Petrokimia an additional three points, allowing them to climb to fourth place with 19 points from 12 matches. For the time being, they overtook Jakarta Livin Mandiri, which dropped to fifth place with 18 points from 11 matches.

The certainty of who will secure the last ticket to the final four will be determined by the final match of the women's regular round, between Livin Mandiri and Bandung Bjb Tandamata on Sunday (23/2/2025). If they win, Livin Mandiri will advance to the final four.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Pertamina Enduro is in third place with 19 points from 11 matches and is unlikely to be moved from the top four because it has a better set ratio (min 1.15) than Gresik Petrokimia (max 1.09). On the other hand, Bjb Tandamata is in sixth place with 13 points from 11 matches and Yogya Falcons is at the bottom with 0 points from 11 matches.

Gresik Petrokimia coach, Ayub Hidayat said, his team is grateful that there is still hope to qualify for the final four. In addition to hoping that Livin Mandiri will slip, Ayub considered his team indeed deserved to be in the final four. The reason is, Gresik Petrokimia's graph climbed during the second round, namely becoming the best team in the second round after the leader of the standings Jakarta Popsivo Polwan.

"Our journey was very tough in the first round. However, we improved and showed a continuous upward trend during the second round. If we qualify, I believe this team can compete in the final four. Hopefully luck is on our side," said Ayub.

We were slow to warm up. But it's a shame that this improving team failed to make it to the final four.

With the game continuing to improve, Gresik Petrokimia's opposite hitter, Mediol Stiovanny Yoku also really hopes that his team can advance to the final four. "We are indeed slow to warm up. However, it is very unfortunate if this improving team fails to qualify for the final four," he said.

Although they have not been able to win, Yogya Falcons coach Marcos Sugiyama assessed that his team has become more mature compared to December 2024 when the team was just formed. The young players, most of whom are competing in the Proliga for the first time, continue to grow stronger.

Indeed, the players occasionally still make their own mistakes that greatly benefit the opponent. They have not been consistent in maintaining aggression and focus during the match. However, this is considered normal for young players with minimal experience.

"In general, they have grown better. That is very positive for the preparation for the upcoming U-21 World Volleyball Championship (in Surabaya and Gresik, East Java, August 7-17, 2025)," said the Japanese-Brazilian coach.

Outside hitter Yogya Faloncs from Kazakhstan, Sabina Altynbekova witnessed the development of the players. According to Sabina, at the beginning of the competition, communication between players was very bad because most of the players were newcomers to Proliga. However, slowly, they continued to learn so that everything became better, from communication to game techniques.

If there was more time, Sabina believes her team could do a lot. "As newcomers, the players need time to develop. With the talent they have and the many matches they have played, they continue to improve. If there was more time, maybe they could give better results than now," she said.