Popsivo Polwan vs Pertamina Enduro, Ideal Duel for the 2025 Proliga Grand Final

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The grand final of the 2025 PLN Mobile Proliga women's category brings together two teams with equal strength, Jakarta Popsivo Polwan and Jakarta Pertamina Enduro. Coupled with the composition of the squad that is equally strong and achievements throughout the competition, Popsivo Polwan and Pertamina Enduro will create an ideal final to end the years of waiting for the championship title.

Popsivo Polwan and Pertamina Enduro faced each other in the peak match of Proliga 2025 held at GOR Amongrogo, Yogyakarta, Saturday (10/5/2025), starting at 19.00 WIB. Both teams advanced to the final round after occupying the top positions in the final standings of the final four. Popsivo topped the standings with 11 points, Popsivo followed with 10 points.

This is the deciding match for two teams that in the regular phase and the final four defeated each other. In the regular season, Popsivo Polwan first defeated Pertamina Enduro in the second week. However, five weeks later, Pertamina Enduro successfully responded. The result also "tarnished" Popsivo's winning streak.

Pertamina Enduro was the only team that defeated Popsivo Polwan in that phase. They defeated Popsivo Polwan to secure a ticket to the final four. As for Popsivo Polwan, the defeat from Pertamina made them fail to score perfect results in the regular phase.

In the final four, both teams defeated each other again. Thus, in the previous four meetings, the strength of Pertamina Enduro and Popsivo Polwan was balanced with each winning two.

After the regular season, Pertamina Enduro and Popsivo Polwan really prepared their teams thoroughly. In addition to starting training earlier even during Ramadan, Popsivo Polwan and Pertamina Enduro also brought in foreign players who are no joke. In Proliga 2025, each team is allowed to have two foreign players. Substitutions of foreign players can be made until before the final four round.

Popsivo Polwan even made a team overhaul. Although the previous team had already achieved positive results, this club owned by the National Police still changed their squad to enhance their strength.

The club has released two of its foreign players, Neriman Ozsoy and Bethania de la Cruz. This decision, particularly the release of Ozsoy, is quite surprising as the player has been a backbone of the team in accumulating points during the regular phase.

Popsivo then recruited players from the United States, Jessica Mruzik and Madison Kingdon. Both players have international experience.

We want to marry the women's and men's team championship titles.

Kingdon, for instance, has played for various clubs in the US, Turkey, Italy, South Korea, and Azerbaijan. Although he has never competed in the Olympics, Kingdon contributed to winning gold medals in the National Volleyball League or VNL in 2018 and 2019.

"We are targeting the best results in every match. To achieve this, we continue to strengthen the team because our goal is to compete and win the championship title," said Popsivo Secretary, Yudhi Hery Setiawan.

"We want to unite the championship titles of the women's and men's teams," said Yudhi. The men's team referred to is Jakarta Bhayangkara Presisi, which also successfully advanced to the final match.

Pertamina Enduro also brought in world-class players to strengthen the team since the final four. The player is Jordan Thompson, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist with the United States women's national team. Thompson filled the quota of two foreign players for Pertamina Enduro with Yana Shcherban (Russia).

The final match will also feature a duel of world-class players, including a clash between fellow American players. Like Popsivo Polwan, Pertamina Enduro has also brought in world-class players to meet their championship target.

However, JPE Chef de Mission, Werry Prayogi, also emphasized that efforts to meet the target were not only when approaching the final four, but since the regular round. Pertamina Enduro created a strong squad from the start and implemented a smarter strategy.

Compared to previous seasons, Pertamina Enduro is no longer a team that “steps on the gas” at the beginning of the season, then starts to run out of gas towards the end of the regular round. Their energy was completely exhausted during the final four so they could not advance to the top match.

In this season, Pertamina Enduro tends to conserve energy towards the end of the season, successfully securing a ticket to the top four. After that, they tend to remain consistent in this round and ultimately advance to the final.

"Our target is to be champions. I want to lead this team to victory. Therefore, I am selecting players who are undoubtedly of high quality. I choose the best players to bring the team to championship," said Werry.

Werry wants Pertamina Enduro to regain its former glory. In 2018, Pertamina Enduro successfully won the Proliga championship title. This title was the second trophy for the team, which had also previously used the names Jakarta Pertamina Energi Putri and Jakarta Pertamina Fastron.

They once emerged as champions in the 2014 edition. In the 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2023 Proliga editions, they had to be satisfied with finishing as runners-up.

There is a kind of longing to once again savor the status of being a champion. Moreover, the time gap since their last trophy in the highest volleyball competition in the country is quite significant.

Last season, the team known by the abbreviation JPE successfully reached the semifinals. However, they failed to advance to the final match after winning only once in the first match against Jakarta BIN, which ultimately emerged as the champion.

In the battle for third place, JPE lost to Popsivo Polwan. They concluded the competition in fourth place after a defeat with a score of 1-3 (18-25, 25-23, 16-25, 13-25).

The same longing was felt by Popsivo Polwan. Proliga 2019 was the last season Popsivo Polwan reached the final and won the title. In the following seasons, they could only reach the final four at most, but had difficulty getting through to the grand final.

In Proliga 2023, Popsivo Polwan even failed to advance to the final four. They only perched in fifth place in the regular phase standings.

The match between Popsivo Polwan and Pertamina Enduro will be a rematch of the 2019 Proliga final. At that time, Popsivo Polwan emerged as the champion after defeating Pertamina Enduro in a fierce match that ended with a score of 3-2 (15-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12).