The men’s volleyball Super League is gaining momentum. The third round is already behind us! And after this initial period, only two clubs lost points: Zenit St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow. But the set ratio is better for Vladimir Alekno’s team, so it is in the lead. But Dynamo won one of the most important matches – in Novosibirsk against Lokomotiv. We discuss the main events of the 3rd round of the Super League.
Dynamo wins, but gives away the first few games
Muscovites won a great victory in Novosibirsk 3:1. And again Konstantin Bryansky’s team lost the first set. But if in the first rounds the capital club was slow to get into the match, here the situation was different. Dynamo led 13:7, but then simply fell apart. Maxim Sapozhkov, who came into the starting lineup against his former club, made a mistake, and Anton Syomyshev also did not do well. The locals took advantage of this failure and won the first set, but later substitute Konstantin Bryansky came on. Tsvetan Sokolov came out and played very well: 78% of attacks with 67% efficiency.
Tsvetan Sokolov
Photo by: RIA Novosti
The third set was crucial. Lokomotiv was down 22:24, but was able to come back and even get a set point: the block worked and Rajab Shakhbanmirzaev converted the pass. However, it was not possible to bring the set to victory: after the Muscovites got into contact, Ilyas Kurkaev attacked, and Omar Kurbanov’s attack was blocked by Sokolov. The railwaymen were unable to recover from such a blow.
“We were unable to score twice with a perfect play at the end of the third game. When you don’t use your skills, you lose. We caught up, turned the match around and missed two attacks, which I think are key to this result. Whether you like it or not, you think about the lost ending. And in such a situation, what happened to us in the fourth game happens. Psychologically, we couldn’t cope with what happened at the end of the third set and we gave up the fourth game almost without a fight,” the coach lamented after the match.
By the way, Plamen also said that Yoandi Leal has shoulder problems and that he is currently only concentrating on strengthening his team. He also clarified that three to four months are needed to fine-tune the team’s play. The deadline is long, but the Siberians do not have time: in the next round they will have to play away from home against Zenit.
Alekno’s chicks acquire feathers
Petersburg are still good. They approached the derby against Dynamo-LO with great confidence. Only in the third game Sosnovoborets were able to compete. Once again, the problems are on the diagonal, where neither Nazar Litvinenko nor Pavel Avdochenko feel safe. The three-hitters system worked until the middle of the third set.
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Well, Zenit looked great. Babkevich was back in order, the crosses started working, Alexander Butko made his mark with a series of tackles. Vladimir Alekno was satisfied with the team, especially highlighting the victory in the third match.
“The third game is very important to me: we learn to win by losing three or four points and winning at the end. The team is growing,” said the coach after the match.
Well, in the next round the test will be even more serious. Zenit is advancing towards the championship, facing a stronger opponent each round. And so far, Alekno and company are doing well.
Kuzbass did not cause any problems for Kazan
Zenit Kazan continues its away tour. This time, Alexey Verbov’s team visited Kemerovo and confidently met Kuzbass, which surprised even the champions’ coach. A semblance of struggle arose only at the end of the first set, when Verbov let young Vladislav Enin play. Otherwise, the Kazan team reigned on the court. The apotheosis was a series of serves by Mikhail Labinsky in the second set: out of eight approaches, the Kemerovo team simply did not concede three goals, as it made one mistake in attack, and Zenit-Kazan converted everything else into successful shots.
Mikhail Labinsky
Photo: VC “Zenit-Kazan”
“They have an aggressive serve that allows them to play more with blocking to torture the opponent, which is what happened today. They tormented us with serves that flew away, but unfortunately for us it didn’t happen. Today we couldn’t hold the reception and made a lot of errors on serve,” Kuzbass captain Roman Pakshin summed up after the match.
What else happened on the tour?
In Krasnoyarsk, Nova scored its first points, giving Yenisei a real fight. The hosts managed to put pressure on the Samara team in the fifth set, but the main score was 29 points from Nova’s finisher Egor Feoktistov, nine of which he scored on a block. Moreover, in all nine cases, his “client” was the Krasnoyarsk diagonal player Roman Murashko.
Neftyanik has won its first championship game. If in the last round the Orenburg team lost to Gazprom-Yugra in the tie-break with a score of 10:3, in the match against MSTU they had to play a real marathon in the first set. 41:39 – the game ended with this score.
Dinamo-Ural won the serve (13:8) and the block (18:5) against ASK, but managed to lose the third set. The Ufa team believed in an easy victory, which the Nizhny Novgorod team took advantage of. The guests did not have enough to do more: the injury of the main setter Dmitry Filippov and the difficult last match in Novosibirsk played a role.
Fakel delighted the fans in the third round by beating Gazprom-Yugra. The quality of this match was not the highest, only on serve the opponents made a total of 48 errors in four sets.
All results from the 3rd round: “Enisey” – “Nova” – 3:2 (25:16, 23:25, 29:27, 29:31, 15:8); “Neftyanik” – MSTU – 3:1 (41:39, 25:18, 19:25, 25:16); “Dinamo-Ural” – ASK – 3:1 (25:17, 25:11, 21:25, 25:16); “Kuzbass” – “Zenit-Kazan” – 0:3 (23:25, 16:25, 14:25); “Fakel Yamal” – “Gazprom-Yugra” – 3:1 (25:21, 25:17, 28:30, 25:20); “Dynamo-LO” – “Zenit” from St. Petersburg – 0:3 (14:25, 20:25, 21:25); Lokomotiv – Dinamo – 1:3 (25:22, 22:25, 25:27, 15:25).
