Success on the nerves
"Gazprom-Ugra" (Surgut): Ozhiganov - Alekseev, Katich - Korotaev, Krsmanovych - Tarasenko, Obmochaev
"Ural" (Ufa): Ushkov – Rybakov, Kovacevic – Ebadipur, Gutsalyuk - Yakutyn, Budyukhin/Frolov
The hosts earned their first handicap with a block – on Ebadipur and Rybakov, 6:4. An extremely long rally with four attempts by Katic in the fourth zone was completed by Tarasenko, 9:6, Immediately Yakutin’s kick into touch makes the home team’s advantage significant, 10:6. The guests give chase and the Ebadipura ace, installed through video review, signals, that everything is not hopeless, 10:9.
Gazprom-Yugra is launching its second escape from balance sheet to 14:14. Ebadipuru Block, two more additional games will be realized by Katic and Tarasenko, 19:15. Ural catches Katic in the fourth zone and begins to return to the game. Rybakov serves to give his team a freeball and a chance to equalize, but he himself is knocking on the block, 20:18. Andrey Voronov reacts with a double substitution, which works, when Potaluk knocks Katic out of the move, 22:22. But then it gets worse: Roman serves into the net, and then settles in the Serbian block of Gazprom-Ugra, Savin serves in the net. Voronkov manages to perform a reverse double substitution, Korotaev does not place the serve in the field, but after a timeout from Rafael Khabibullin, Krsmanovich calmly scores through his counterpart Gutsalyuk, 25:23.
In the second set, Gazprom-Yugra switched off almost all elements of the game. Toothless feed, lame move, no filming in the fourth zone. Guests systematically move forward, finishing off Katic in the foursome and finishing off the hosts with aces (Kovačević - 3:4, Potaluk - 5:8). When the block closes Alekseeva (5:11), Kirillov appears on the court instead of Ozhiganov. Korotaev continues to be tortured during the reception, depriving Surgut residents of intelligible rent, another ace from Kovacevic is recorded on the scoreboard 10:17. Krsmanovich's response ace to the conflict zone does not make any difference, Rudnev comes out instead of Alekseev and gets stuck in the block, 12:20. Towards the end, Katic decides several times on the grid, and Surgut youth player Alexander Krasilnikov’s access to the diagonal serve ends with a Potalyuku block, but this is just a promise to continue the game. Ebadipur puts an end to it, 16:25.
In the third game, the angry Surgut residents went forward right off the bat: Korotaev woke up in the attack, Tarasenko puts an ace on the baseline, the block finally covers Kovacevic, 5:1. Potaluk powerfully fires deep out, Kovacevic fails again at the edge of the net, Alekseev responds with a blow to the hands, 7:1. Butko and Rybakov appear on the court and after some time the guests take three breaks in a row: fails again in the Korotaev technique, and Rybakov and Kovacevich’s answers are accurate, 11:8.
The trend for superiority restores Krasilnikov's access to serve. He shoots short, breaking the Ural maneuver, and then issues a power ace - 15:8. Ufa residents don’t give up Kovachevich, issuing ace, 18:13. But Obmochaev handles Urosh’s next excellent serve just as well., and Alekseev is on fire. He brings the team 19th, 20-it is, 21-is also the 23rd point. Towards the end, Ushkov twice finds Gutsalyuk with allotted passes., but that doesn't help, On the second set point of the Surgut team, Kovacevich takes a risk and breaks the serve into the long out..
The fourth game was an even fight from the very beginning, rivals, alternately coming forward, couldn't go further, than a couple of points. At Ural, the falling banner from the hands of a tired Kovacevich is picked up by Ebadipur, Potaluk alternates aces and nails with errors, and the Surgut team began to improve and cope with difficult balls on the Katich net, Korotaev followed him. With the score 17:18 Ivan made smart use of the emergency ball, throwing it to Potaluk - he returned it back and Korotaev figured out the organized counterattack. Then Ivan scored through touch and closed the diagonal “Ural” together with Krsmanovich with a block - and all this again on a series of serves by Krasilnikov, 20:18.
Voronkov throws Butko and Rybakov into battle, but the Ural threat still emanates, mainly, from the fourth zone. Twice good Kovacevic, and the hosts don’t have attacks through the center. Alekseev hits out (21:22) and provokes a timeout of Gazprom-Yugra. “Ural” gets to set point first – 23:24 through the efforts of Ebadipur. The game of nerves has begun. On account 26:27 “Ural” has an excellent chance to force the game into a tie-break after the repelled attacks of Korotaev and Alekseev, but Kovacevic failed to beat the block. Immediately Uroš falls during a difficult shooting and kicks over the center line, giving the first match point to the opponent. The Serbian finisher corrects himself – the shot is out, but Alekseev admits the touch, Krsmanovic returns match point, and Gutsalyuk, in an attempt to twist the ball past the block, gets into touch and brings victory to Gazprom-Yugra.
Comments after the game
Head coach of VC "Ural" Andrey Voronkov: We were preparing, to show the most effective game. Somewhere we were unlucky in the counterattack, somewhere when attacking from the back line. These are the moments, which need to be developed in the future. Compared to the last game, we have definitely improved our presentation, we dominated on serve. The only thing, that the game needed to be kept in balance, there was a failure somewhere, which will need to be disassembled. Everything has been decided, Unfortunately, the details. It wasn't a global failure, but in the details.
Senior coach of VC "Gazprom-Yugra" Denys Harkushenko: Both teams needed this win, there was a series of defeats, not very high quality games, and today both teams didn’t play very well either. There was a game of nerves. Nerves, apparently, turned out to be stronger for us, all the guys survived the difficult ending. In the second game things didn't work out for us from the very beginning, have done a lot of their marriage, but the guys are great, gathered, made conclusions, we suggested something, reorganized at some tactical points. In the fourth game, the fans pulled us forward, and the desire to win worked. commands, that we can beat, we must beat at home - without detracting from their merits. Somewhere fortune smiled on us today.
Central blocking VC "Gazprom-Yugra" Petar Krsmanovich: A very important victory. We lost our last match at home, which was unexpected. There was a strong opponent today, I think, that we play better with such people. Thanks to all the fans, that they came to support us, it was very important. I think, the team played well, Only in the second game did everyone lose, that they could - it happens. Was a serious opponent, two foreign players of simply top level, but we dealt with them. In the fourth game after the score 25:25 – roulette, luck, we were lucky.
3 : 1 
Ural (Ufa)Details
| Date | Time | Championship |
|---|---|---|
| 18.11.2023 | 19:00 | CR 2023-2024 |
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | GENERAL. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut) | 25 | 16 | 25 | 30 | 3 |
| Ural (Ufa) | 23 | 25 | 20 | 28 | 1 |
Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | S | K | E | FACING | B | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ural (Ufa)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | S | K | E | FACING | B | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
