Zenit applied for the title

In the play-off final of the Russian men’s volleyball championship, Zenit Kazan defeated Dynamo Moscow again – 3:1 (18:25, 25:15, 25:18, 25:21). The score in the series became 2:0, and now the teams are moving to Moscow, where the third match will take place next Sunday, in which the new Super League champion can already be determined.

IN first match final series with “Zenith” “Dynamo” was simply unrecognizable. The current champions of Russia never even managed to overcome the mark of 20 points per set and lost almost without a fight, having made a lot of mistakes, especially in attack and on the pitch. But in the second meeting, the Muscovites no longer had the right to make such mistakes, and it was hard to believe that such a strong and experienced team would fail two games in a row.

Dynamo, of course, needed to bring the diagonal Tsvetan Sokolov to the design capacity, otherwise his 12 points at the start of the series, even with a rather high conversion of 60%, is the minimum statistics for such a master who is capable of scoring under the “thirty” in three games “. In addition, Dynamo needed a completely different Yaroslav Podlesnykh in the rematch, otherwise he went into the red two days ago in terms of utility and dumped the main work on the shoulders of Anton Semyshev.

Although, first of all, the Dynamo team needed their signature serve, because they are the undisputed leaders of the Super League in terms of the number of aces on average per set, and two aces per match, as happened the day before yesterday, is nothing for them at all.

And already in the debut of the second meeting, they managed to break out by three points thanks to the cunning glider of central Vadim Likhosherstov, who returned to the starting lineup, who also strengthened the block.

“Zenith” quickly caught up with the Muscovites, but then Semyshev and Sokolov’s power delivery went off. The Bulgarian scorer scored two aces in a row, after which the guests led 15:11 and forced the head coach of the Kazan club Alexei Verbov to spend all the time-outs. However, Dynamo was unstoppable, especially since Pavel Pankov and Likhosherstov gave out another ace each. 25:18 – so more than convincingly it won the opening game.

However, in the next set, the white-and-blues again had difficulties on the pitch, and the central Ilya Vlasov made three more mistakes in a short period of time. And Kazan immediately punished the opponent for it. In addition, they also have a recognized aceman Maxim Mikhailov. Three innings right through the best Russian diagonal of recent years allowed Zenit to turn the game in their favor. And Dmitry Volkov effectively blocked Sokolov and also “eysanul”, having already completely predetermined the outcome of the second game.

As a result, the hosts inflicted a uniform defeat on Dynamo – 25:15.

In the third set, the guests again found themselves in the role of catching up, but on the pitch of Pankov they played two break balls. However, at Zenit, Mikhailov scored on a triple block just in time, and soon he plunged another ace into the court, which also inspired his partners. When Sokolov hit the cable, Kazan again increased the difference to “plus three”. Dynamo still resisted, but until the same Sokolov and Semyshev ran into a powerful anti-aircraft block. Even the reserve diagonal of the capital club Romanas Shkulyavichyus hit the wall in the first attack.

As a result, the hosts went to the end with a comfortable advantage and calmly took the game — 25:18.

The fourth set also started unsuccessfully for Dynamo, when Vlasov again made a mistake in the attack at the first pace, and Artem Volvich closed Sokolov. At the same time, Mikhailov’s hand was absolutely not tired of pounding. Plus, as in the first match, Sam Deru was good in attack. The Belgian, together with the main scorer of Zenit, immediately secured a plus-four lead. Nevertheless, through the efforts of Podlesny, the Muscovites minimized it, and Sokolov evened the score. But as soon as this happened, Alexei Kononov hard sheathed the Bulgarian, Mika Christenson followed right through, and Podlesnykh sent the ball out.

So Zenit again became “plus four”. The guests did not give up and got close to the distance of one point, when Podlesnykh scored an ace, but Sokolov faltered at the decisive moment. And the final point on the triple match point was set by Volvich, whose glider had given the Dynamo team a lot of trouble before — 25:21.

Kazan won the second victory at home – 3:1, and now the series will continue in Moscow on May 7.

True, the third match may already be the last for the national champion, who does not yet look like a team capable of resisting the current Zenit. Despite the fact that Dynamo visually improved compared to the first game, this was still not enough to compete on equal terms with the contender for gold medals.

Alexander Ilyin