There were attempts, but we were beaten

"Gazprom-Ugra": S. Kostadinov - Litvinov, Demakov - Andreev, Rodichev - Bobrov, Nagaets/Moiseev

"Zenit-Kazan": Abayev - Luburic, Volvich – Kononov, Volkov – Surmachevsky, Danani

Surgut residents lost their breath due to medical reasons Alexander Kostadinov, Zenit did not bring Fedorov and Romanovsky. The hosts fielded an unusual combination of centers for the game, the motivation of which should be sought in Kazan roots. It worked partly: Demakov scored half of the command blocks, Andreev attacked well, both scored an ace – but it didn’t really help the team.

Guests immediately felt at home, having turned the blocking capabilities of Volvich’s serves to the maximum – 2:7. In the future, Zenit only increased its advantage: Nagai missed the ace parachute from Abaev (6:13), Nikiforov, who came on as part of a double substitution, hit the block with his first touch (9:18). Add here the chronic lack of service on the home court and the picture becomes complete. Occasionally something pecked at Bobrov, Litvinova, in the center, and Zenit pressed systematically through Luburic and Volkov.

Bobrov suddenly puzzled Danani in his reception - he was not in time for the shortened serve, and then Volkov hit into touch, allowing the Surgut residents to catch up a little, 15:22. But Luburic immediately withdrew, a Volkov issued ayce. Serov, who came out to serve the last chance, confidently stuck the ball into the center of the net, 16:25.

The second game started with an ace from Surmachevsky, but this time the hosts managed to get a hold, despite another ace from Kononov (1:3). Rodichev did an excellent job in the fourth zone, and the slightly relaxed guests began to play pranks and landed in the hands of the blockers a couple of times, 6:6. Further more: Luburic hits the rope, he springs the ball into touch, Slavi himself decides the episode after the freeball on Surmachevsky’s unsuccessful move, 9:7 – and Alexey Verbov takes a time out. In which it burns with a verb, shaking up the team.

The team shook up and turned 10:8 in 10:16 on Kononov's serves, which completely destroyed the reception of Gazprom-Yugra. Slavi Kostadinov didn’t even have much of a chance to come up with something on the grid, Nagaec, Bobrov and Serov, who came out instead of him, simply did not give him a single intelligible follow-up, plus two clean aces. Then the Yugra residents were finished off by inertia, which ended with 19:25. During the play, Volkov was replaced by Enin, Vyshnikov appeared instead of Abaev, the Surgut team played a double – Nikiforov eventually brought victory to Zenit with a serve into the net.

Vyshnikov remained with the guests for the third set, and Enin, Shcherbinin appeared instead of Kononov. The hosts got their first breaks due to the guests' mistakes - Luburic hit the antenna, Vyshnikov, saving the outgoing ball, I didn’t find Shcherbinin’s hand, 5:3. Then Rodichev joined in - ace, 7:4. The rope played for Luburic, interrupted his serve in an unbreakable dive, to which Andreev responded with an ace in Enin, 9:6. Volvich is stopped by a block, Yenin is also tightly closed by the second wave, 10:6 – and Volkov returns to the site.

Meanwhile, Demakov stops Surmachevsky, plus one more shot from Andrey into the “forest of hands” on the withdrawn ball, plus Bobrov's ace - 13:8. Verbov takes a second time out, but the teams seemed to have swapped places: Now Zenit is chronically unable to withdraw, 15:8. Demakov overdid it, lifting the ball up on freeball - it flew to the opponent. So that the player does not worry, Kirillov gave him the perfect pass, after which Andrey also made an ace, forcing Danani to throw the ball into the stands (!). 17:9 – it seemed, that this time the game turned towards the hosts.

But Zenit would not be Zenit, if I hadn't given chase. The mistakes are over, the block caught a couple of home team attacks, at the same time, the Zenit team themselves did not give anything away. Video review returned the point to the Surgut team after Bobrov’s attack – the ball caught a block, and then it was the turn to check for touch the shot into touch from Volkov. Demakov seemed to admit that, that the ball hit him, but not to the judges - they ordered a review. Which initially determined, that there was no touch. Then we looked closer - it was. Justice has triumphed, check 19:16, but at the same time we got the evil Volkov.

He knocks out Bobrov with his serve., like a pin in bowling, 20:18. Kirillov bets on Bobrov - he does not pass in terms of speed and cannot cope with the height of the block, 20:20. Serov, who came out instead of him, again does not bring any benefit, disrupts the reception. Consequently, Luburic played in the playoffs. Litvinov brings the last point to the hosts, 21:21, after which Surmachevsky is removed, Luburic scores the end of the game after Serov's failure in attack, Celebrating the passuet past Demakov, and Litvinov gets stuck in Surmachevsky’s single block. The whole line tried to do something, total - 21:25.

"Gazprom-Ugra" fought as best he could

Head coach of VC Zenit-Kazan Alexey Verbov: Except for the third batch, except for our attitude towards difficulties, that we created for ourselves, except that, that people, who created them, we couldn’t get out of them ourselves – that’s what I didn’t like... The game itself was slow, sluggish, in the first game Surgut, Yes, and Surgut added emotionally, made nine service errors. Sure, it's vigilance that kills. I understand, played it myself, when the opponent does not create anything, it's hard to keep a rhythm.

And in the second game we lost attention at the moment, started making uncharacteristic mistakes, in the third game - a total disaster. But then somewhere the judges led us to this viewing, when Demakov seemed to confess, but they took the point, Then, thanks to them, returned, a plus, certainly, Volkov's exit, Abaev's return... But to me, to be honest, I don’t want to return Volkov with such a game, and Abaeva. This does not speak about our strength in the moment, it says, that we still need to work a lot and have a different attitude towards some things. After all, this is not the first time! One time I even left, didn't want to talk, but now I think I need to say, that we are unhappy with the quality, which was in the first half of the third game.

But we believed, that we can turn this party around, We were confident in our skills and played very disciplined in the second half of this game, didn't make a single mistake, didn't let the opponent do anything at all. clear, that Surgut now has its own tasks, we have our own, we tried to complete some of our tasks, but not everything worked out.

Senior trainer of VC Gazprom-Yugra Alexander Chefranov: Whatever the game... A negative result is also a result. In this case, experience. In the third game, the opponent without their leaders on the court was tough for us. But they found their hero, came out and showed us, how it's done. The first and second games were lost in the same formation, in the first – on Volvich’s serve, in the second - Kononov. There is some kind of serial error. The number of service defects is the downside of trying to push your opponent away from the net, serve aggressively. Then we looked at the statistics and decided to simplify the presentation, to somehow give yourself a fighting chance.

Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra) 0: 3 Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
13.11.2025	19:00	CR 2025-2026

Results

Team	1	2	3	GENERAL.
Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)	16	19	21	0
Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)	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

Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)

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