Do not jump before Zenit

"Gazprom-Ugra" (Surgut): Kirillov – Papazov, Shevlyakov – Rudnev/Fedorov, Rodichev - Kostadinov, Nagaec

"Zenith" (St. Petersburg): Kovalev – Babkevich, Kosmin – Tarasenko, Yant – Dineikin, Grebennikov.

The first set very reminded the first batch of the previous match with the Moscow Dynamo. Surgutians fell again in one arrangement, "Flying away" on Dineikin's feeds with 6:5 on 6:14. At a knocked-out reception and high balls, the extreme strikers of Gazprom-South, over and over again, got into a tall block of guests. Having finally starred through Papazov, The Surgutians leveled the game, But the missed was no longer returned.

From the start of the second set, the hosts again had poor reception and, Consequently, eat - 1:4. But Kostadinov brings Babkevich’s powerful serve to the setter’s nose and Rodichev is accurate, Now Zenit's reception has faltered and Dineykin hits the high ball into touch, 5:6. Surgut residents press with serve, but Kovalev has a universal answer - Babkevich. Surgut residents stay in the wake, Kirillov equalizes the score with an ace, 9:9. Babkevich passes along the height again, and Kostadinov again copes with the reception, but not with an attack. The guests multiply their break advantage by serving their diagonal, Papazov does not find a way out of a difficult situation, 11:14.

Soon the teams went on a long “smoke break” in connection with the video review: Dineykin pressed the ball off the block, remains to be seen, who was last on the ball. So that the audience doesn't get bored, the first judge showed the guests mustard plaster (already the second, the first one was in the middle of the first set) and came down from the tower myself, to establish the final verdict - a point for Zenit. After a pause, the hosts gave the guests a freeball, Nagaets pulled Babkevich's attack along the line, but no one stopped Yant, 12:16.

at level 14:19 Masko came on instead of Kostadinov, freeball again at Zenit: Surgut residents heroically fought back from the edges, but missed in the center from Kosmin, 14:20. It seemed, the set floated away, but Kirillov came out to serve and hit a funny ace through the rope, 16:20. There’s another one right there – already clean., 17:20, forcing Alekno to take the first timeout. Did not help. Kirillov terrorized with Yant's serve, and Shevlyakov first caught Babkevich hitting an awkward ball from the fourth zone, and then closed Kosmin one on one, 19:20. Two more allotted receptions and two outs from Babkevich and Yant – 21:20! However, St. Petersburg residents responded in kind: two blocks from Kosmina (one of them is Shevlyakov) and two aces from Yant (last on set point) settled the outcome of the set, 21:25.

The third game is a continuation of the second. Ace Yanta, 1:3. Floating technique, mistakes in attack from Surgut, 4:8. Tikhonov comes on instead of Yant., and Gazprom-Yugra again embarks on a heroic pursuit. At first Tikhonov “helped” - he didn’t give in and hit the pipe with the cable, 10:12. Then the returnee distinguished himself twice in attack, this time instead of Rodichev, Kostadinov, and Papazov equalizes the score with an ace, 14:14. And again there are not enough owners for more: in the second half of the set they have six (!) errors when putting the ball into play. Perhaps, the key moment was, when the video review recorded Kirillov's serve into touch and instead 18:19 appeared on the scoreboard 17:20. “Zenith” continued to film through Dineykin, waited for the last two mistakes of the Surgut team on serve, blocked Kostadinov twice on match point, and Tikhonov scored on the second attempt, 20:25.

"Gazprom-Ugra" fought as best he could:

Binder VK "Zenit" (St. Petersburg) Dmitry Kovalev: Won - good, fans with victory! But there is a more important stage ahead. We considered this game somewhere as preparation for the future, somewhere to hone interactions, give someone a break, let someone play. There was a nervous moment in the second game, when we were leading by six points and just, apparently, thought, that the game has already finished and we relaxed somewhere. This is what we need to pay more attention to.

Senior trainer of VC Gazprom-Yugra Alexey Rudakov: We've made too many mistakes. With such a team, like St. Petersburg, you can't make so many mistakes. Six in attack, Yes, and Surgut added emotionally, mistakes. It's understandable, that they have a very good block, especially in the first game they knocked on there. The guys fought, there is nothing to blame them for. In the second game we had a moment, but there Yant came out to serve and decided everything. The third game could have started better, we had two passing balls there, which we didn't finish. I had to take risks when serving, 14 there are too many mistakes. But if Zenit is not moved away from the net, if they take a plus, it’s extremely difficult to jump to them.

Blocking VC "Gazprom-Yugra" Dmitry Shevlyakov: So many fans come - it’s nice to play! The atmosphere is great. In the first game we failed on not the strongest serve. Good block organization, the guys sorted us out well, kicked out of the reception, they moved us a little away from the net and it caused us problems. the, that Maxim passed me a lot today - I like it! You need to be friends with the bunch, so that he passes you a lot. There is no pressure on us now, we have fun playing. "Zenith", of course, I didn’t let you show your best today. But in the second game the ending was good, we already believed it ourselves, Max served well, but it wasn't enough. If there were more good serves, they would take Zenit away from the net and it would be easier. Presentation matters a lot.

Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra) 0: 3 Zenith (St. Petersburg)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
07.03.2025	19:00	CR 2024-2025

Results

Team	1	2	3	GENERAL.
Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)	19	21	20	0
Zenith (St. Petersburg)	25	25	25	3

Venue

g. Surgut / SC "Premier Arena"

Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)

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

Zenith (St. Petersburg)

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