We're in a race!

ASK (Nizhny Novgorod): Jovanovic – Premovic, Zakhvatenkov – Panasenko, Pyatyrkin - Karpukhov, Zelenkov

"Gazprom-Ugra" (Surgut): Ozhiganov - Shakhbanmirzaev, Krsmanovich - Shevlyakov, Rodichev – Korotaev, Obmochaev

We stay in the race! I wrote in the preview, that the game will largely determine: Will we be able to stay in the hunt for the playoffs or will we fall into the fight for survival?? clear, that there is still a long way to go, but Gazprom-Yugra retained its chances in Nizhny, returning the favor to ASK for the defeat in the first round.

Although the debut of the match did not bode well for us. The equal game was interrupted at the mark 8:8 a series of innings by Alexander Zakhvatenkov. In the first two attempts, our receivers were let down by the trajectory changed by the cable, then the middle blocker scored a clean ace, another unsuccessful move resulted in the ball being thrown into touch, 8:12.

Immediately after this, the owners switched on cyborg mode in defense, Zelenkov carried everything, and Jovanovic saved the ball with his foot, lying on the platform, 10:15. Without detracting from the advantages of ASC, I note, that the Surgut attacks clearly lacked concentrated power. And after Shevlyakov’s attack on Panasenko’s block (12:17) Maxim Kirillov entered the court and remained until the end of the game. He immediately reconnected Shevlyakov, this time successfully, and played the game like an adult, with a reasonable amount of risk.

But it was almost impossible to save the first set, despite the ace of Vyacheslav Rudnev, who came out specifically for this mission: the owners got the courage, Zelenkov continued to work miracles, we were just delaying the pranks, how could. The victory was brought to the hosts by captain Alexander Pyatyrkin, who returned to duty..

In the second set, the Surgut team immediately rushed forward on Kirillov’s serves - 3:0. ASK caught up quite quickly, taking advantage of our mistakes: Kirillov threw it into the block, and Shevlyakov hit out, 6:6. Rodichev corrected the pass with his left hand, Zakhvatenkov responded to Shevlyakov with his attack wide of the court. Restoring the break advantage, our guys dragged it to the mark 20:18. During this time, Premovic was replaced by Antonov from the owners, who with an ace again restored parity before what promised to be a hot ending, 20:20.

After filing a diagonal ASK into the net, we got Vadim Ozhiganov into the line of fire: first Rajab blocked with Pyatyrkin's block, then, at the end of a long rally, the ASK captain, from an awkward position, hit an upward trajectory in search of a touch, but didn't find it, 20:23. Quick eat Rajab (I praise Kirillov) gave us three set-points, of which we used the last one. First, Rajab ran into a block in the final game, and they accepted Rodičev at the same time. During the time-out, the options were explained to Kirillov and Maxim chose the riskiest one, passing the ball after Dmitry Shevlyakov. It worked - 25:23!

At the beginning of the third set, Denis Antonov scored an ace and the hosts gained an advantage, 3:1, but they also quickly lost it. In a protracted draw, Zelenkov performed a pancake after Rajab's discount, the video replay recorded the contact of the ball with the court, 4:4. An equal game could again go to the hosts, who took advantage of Korotaev’s misses on the net and in reception, 9:12. But ours endured: Rodichev scored an emergency goal, Rajab scored a freeball with a serve, which was implemented through Shevlyakov, 15:15. Another Rajab discount, “raised” in defense – and watch again, and again the field, 16:16. The owners are zealous Antonov and Pyatyrkin, correcting the pressure of Surgut residents on serve, Krsmanovic waited for his chance and gave a kill block to the ASC captain, 19:18.

Kirillov continued to knock his opponent out of the hold, our unit works to soften, and Rajab scores the final goal, 21:18. Our diagonal shot came out perfectly from the fourth zone, throwing a parachute into an empty corner of the site, 22:19. Korotaev copes with Pyatyrkin’s powerful serve, Krsmanovic scores, 23:20. In the next play, Kirillov literally demolished the substitutes' chairs, trying to save the ball - lost a point, but morale was raised, show, that we are literally fighting into blood. And let Karpukhov, through experience, manage to unscrew a difficult ball from the block, Maxim himself, with another risky gesture, closed the question of the winner with a discount, 25:22.

In the fourth set, ASK scored the first point by throwing the ball under the baseline, and then they whistled the formation to us - 0:2. I didn’t like the trend and went backwards, and what a! Krsmanovic eats Panasenko, Korotaev hits an ace in the gap between Zelenkov and Karpukhov, continuing to press with serve and forcing the opponent to make mistakes in difficult situations on the net, 5:2. Kirillov finally closed the line to Antonov, 9:5, excellent defense gives Korotaev a chance, he hands over, 10:5.

Rudnev comes out to serve and completely ruins the hosts. In one episode, Rajab simply throws the ball to the intended location of the setter in the second zone - the ball falls into the open field! Ace Rudneva - 14:6. The hosts are trying to correct the situation with their serve, take risks and make a lot of mistakes, Krsmanovich turned on God mode in our country, closing Pyatyrkin twice, 18:8. Andrey Dranishnikov replaces Jovanovic with Khaibulov, and Pyatyrkina – to Valeeva, but this, rather, gesture of despair. Rajab corrects Kirillov's poor pass with his right hand and scores with a cool pass on one block, 20:10.

Rajab's serve goes out of bounds, simultaneously scratching Antonov’s leg, but the judges don't see, and the video review only records the ball landing out of bounds. But it doesn't matter anymore: Rajab shoots powerfully, Korotaev scores a passing ball after Rodichev's clearing serve, Obmochaev drags Karpukhov's attack along the line, and Khaibulov cannot approach the ball, burying himself in Zakhvatenkov’s back, 23:11... Korotaev puts an end to the match with a block-out, 25:12.

Starting the game indistinctly, our guys were able to overcome themselves, will rebuild, began to press with serves and gradually pushed the opponent away from the net. On difficult balls Pyatyrkin, Karpukhov and Antonov earned whist for some time, but this couldn't last long. We added in the right places, took over the courage from the opponent in defense and put the finishing touches on the Nizhny Novgorod team. Well done all: Krsmanovic played great, Rodichev scored important goals, Korotaev brought a lot of benefits, as always, Shakhbanmirzaev played effectively and in places spectacularly, Obmochaev worked in defense, Rudnev served well. Separately about Kirillov: not everything is smooth yet, but you can already see the adult game, in some places just a sight for sore eyes, and there are no questions at all regarding the dedication of the young player. The most important thing was the team, which didn't break, where the players supported each other and moved forward, without looking at the scoreboard.

ASK (Nizhny Novgorod) 1: 3 Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
26.01.2024	21:00	CR 2023-2024

Results

Team	1	2	3	4	GENERAL.
ASK (Nizhny Novgorod)	25	23	22	12	1
Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut)	19	25	25	25	3

ASK (Nizhny Novgorod)

1	2	3	4	5	S	K	E	FACING	B	PTS
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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