Derby aftertaste
18 and 19 January "Star of Yugra" held two principal meetings with neighbors from "University". Our neighborhood and geographical, and in the standings. And if Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk are unlikely to change places on the map, then in the table they could well - in the case of a double success of the Surgut.
The first match created all the prerequisites for this, even Yugra-Samotlor players Nikita Palamoshin and Nazar Litvinenko, who were sent to help, could not do anything. "Star of Yugra" has its own guys, smelled the gunpowder of the Super League, and they were good - Alexander Slobodyanyuk chalked it up to his own account 19 points, Maxim Kirillov competently conducted his partners and stayed on serve the longest. The course of the match was, however, distinct youthful tone, when rivals took turns launching prolonged serial failures. In general, Surgut residents had fewer of them, and the final spurt in the fourth set from the mark 19:19 on 25:19 confirmation of this.
The next day, “Star of Ugra” had every chance to beat “University” in the standings - we won two games with a very noticeable advantage. We also led in the fourth, but the same glitch happened, which we see so often at the youth level. Growth involves change and one can only hope, that young volleyball players will benefit from it in the form of accumulated experience. 2:3, “Zvezda Ugra” scored a point more than the opponent, but remained in fifth place in terms of number of victories. A little offensive, but, on the other hand, the result is still quite decent.
It means, that the fight for a place in the coveted six is in full swing. The next tour starts next Thursday, 28 January, Surgut, our opponents will be “ASK-2” and “Zenit-UOR” twice, currently occupying 11th and 8th places respectively. We need to increase our margin of victories, to feel confident before the last round in Kemerovo, where we will play with Kuzbass-2 and Novosibirsk Lokomotiv-SSHOR. The chances of ultimate success are still high, you just need to withstand psychological pressure and show the game, which we are capable of.
