They beat up the heavyweight

"Gazprom-Ugra": S. Kostadinov - Litvinov, Tkachev – Andreev, Rodichev – Kuklinsky, Nagaec

"Zenith": Kobzar - Yant, Dinekin, Pakshin - Kosmin, Chereiskaya, Shishkin

Alexander Kostadinov and Dmitry Shevlyakov did not take part in the match due to medical reasons., and Alexander Moiseev warmed up, but never showed up on the set. Vladimir Alekno sent an experimental squad with three additional players.

Equal start, 5:5, then the guests press through Pakshin and Yant, 6:9. Rodichev helps to stay afloat - first he blocks the Cuban, then hits heavy balls twice, 12:14. In the absence of Alexander Kostadinov, Denis Litvinov bears a large burden, Zenit responds a little more diversely, but the main addressee for Kobzar is Yant.

Glory with a signature ace (this time it was Pakshin who suffered) breaks the distance, 17:18. Another powerful pitch, knocked out technique leads to a fight on the net, where does Litvinov put the point?, 18:18. Vladimir Alekno is forced to take a time out, but the balance is maintained, 21:21. Yant from the second zone - past the site, 22:21. Litvinov gets a freeball with his serve and realizes it himself without blocking after Slavi’s cool show, 23:21. В приеме появляется Гребенников и Янт двумя атаками сравнивает счет, 23:23. Бабкевич выходит вместо Кобзаря на блок, но срабатывает это оружие у хозяев – закрыт Пакшин, 24:23. On the first set point, Andreev catches Yant's discount, 25:23.

Such a start was not part of Zenit’s plans, but Alekno did not ruin the composition of three finishers, only released Dikarev instead of Chereisky and left Grebennikov. From the start, the guests began to show off their hosts at the reception. The loser of the first set, Marlon Yant, tried first, 0:4. Then the banner was picked up by Kosmin, 1:10. The serve flew well, the reception was absent as a class and, Consequently, I'll eat. Pakshin marked Ace, 3:12.

There are such sets, when it is extremely difficult to interrupt the existing trend: one team does it all, the other has nothing. Sports luck is also on the side of the strong. Understanding the futility of resistance, The hosts' coaching staff tried to at least preserve the nerves and strength of the main players, replacing almost the entire composition: Kirillov appeared on the site, Demakov, Bobrov, Serov, Nikiforov. at level 4:18 Litvinov returned to the game, but that didn't mean anything anymore. After the loss 8:25 Gazprom-Yugra had to either collapse completely, or try to rise from the ashes.

The Surgut team showed character and chose the second option in the third set. Yant helped a little: first I launched the pipe without a block out (4:3), then I couldn't cope with the reception, Rodichev scored a passing goal, 6:4. At the beginning of the set, Kuklinski stepped on his partner’s foot, he was carried away from the site - Bobrov made up for the loss of another fighter, coped with anxiety and pipe, 7:5.

The rivals got involved in protracted rallies, Dineykin and Litvinov exchanged attacks, and Yant hits out again, 10:7. Bobrov has a hard time in the four on the tall block of the St. Petersburgers and Slavi switches to playing in the center, passing from the third or fourth meter into Tkachev's hand. at level 13:10 Instead of Pakshin, Babkevich appears and immediately scores from the spot, 14:12. Another sharp pass from Slavi, this time to Andreev, and instead of Litvinov, Demakov comes out to serve. Interesting, that the idea worked, but half: Ivan's glider baffles Grebennikov, the Surgut team gets an extra game, but Slavi forgot, that Litvinov is not on site, and Demakov forgot to play his role to the end - after passing the diagonal ball, it hangs like a silent question and falls without an addressee.

Forced emphasis in the attack on the returning Litvinov (tempo turned off by reception, and in the fourth zone Bobrov is reliably covered) leads to numerous mitigations and responses through Babkevich and Yant, 16:18. But the fight is not over: Bobrov finally breaks back from the block, Andreev forces Dineikin to throw away the glider, 18:19. Rodichev and Bobrov twice defend Babkevich’s blows, Yant finishes off - 19:21. Zenit is having a hard time maintaining their advantage, but suddenly Tkachev, reliable until this moment, fails - out, 20:23. Alexander immediately corrects himself, and with another glider, Dineikin, who is suffering in the reception, drags the owners close, 22:23.

Alekno's time-out forces Tkachev to make a serve error. The first set point is recovered by Andreev through another sharp pass from Slavi on the withdrawn ball., but Yanta's pipe closes the question of the winner, 23:25.

Fourth set and fight again. This is almost the first time Blok gets to Tkachev (3:5), but Rodichev demonstrates the best version of himself: accepted, scored, issued an ace on Yanta, 5:5. at level 7:7 there was a battle of video views. First, Zenit proved, that Babkevich’s throw out went over Litvinov’s shoulder, and then the owners' check was approved, that Babkevich touched the net, while the ball was still technically in play.

Until the middle of the set (15:15) rivals fought on equal terms, after which the hosts lost three goals in a row: Yant figured out a difficult ball, threw into the cauldron, the block stopped Tkachev once again, shootout on the net - in favor of the guests, 15:18. Bobrov scores a hard ball on a triple block, but late: Kobzar triggers the ending through the cosmic Babkevich. His attacks and two aces decide the matter, point, the risk, Litvinov puts the serve out, 19:25.

The battle between rivals from different weight categories ends predictably, but the fighter in the “fly” weight pretty beat up the heavyweight. The guests had to show all their power in response to the Siberian character.

Comments after the game:

Head coach of VC Zenit (St. Petersburg) Vladimir Alekno: At first, It's never easy here. You can find a hundred alibis and at the same time there are none. Can, played like this, how they should have played. Why should we play all the games like this?, How did you play the second one?? The second is an accident, we're a little lucky. And so - these are workers of all parties, at the expense of volleyball and won: they put a block somewhere, somewhere they served, where they won the playoffs. Babkevich came out - he has a little problem with his leg, I wanted to take care of him, but... I'm not sure, that everything would be so smooth without him.

Surgut was not surprising, Surgut is charged every year, shows its volleyball every year. Easy to play, when you have the right to make a mistake. It's hard for us to play, when you don't have it.

– The adjuster needs time, for his musical instrument to play. How much time do you need, so that your team plays like this, to make you happy?

– The guys have been together for a long time, but Igor came, new binder. He needs to get used to it, you have to get used to it. He's trying, he has the character of a fighter. Something he does very well, I'm dissatisfied with something. During the season I can't tell, do you need a month or ten years?. There are episodes now, which the command does like this, as I didn’t do at the beginning of the season.

Captain VC "Zenith" (St. Petersburg) Zhenya Grebennikov: It's always very difficult to play here, very good team, well served. You are very happy, that they took away three points, tried to the end. We started well in the first game, were leading, but then the opponent returned, because we didn’t score two or three counterattacks. The opponent caught the courage, it was hard for us. You had to get angry anyway, how we started the second game, 25:8...I'm in life, probably, I've never won with such a score! We started playing aggressively and proved, that we want to win. Well, Babkevich for us, of course, very helpful, and our coach helped us a lot (smiles - ed.).

Coach of VC Gazprom-Yugra Alexander Chefranov: It turned out to be a very good game, first of all from our side. Well done guys, approached the game correctly. По первой партии – мы совершили меньше ошибок и, respectively, смогли навязать борьбу. После первой партии «Зенит», probably, получил пару крепких слов от главного тренера, и они вышли показывать то, what are they really capable of?. Saving mode is over, and they began to play in full force.

Then we managed to return to the game, began to value the ball, make fewer mistakes, forced the opponent to release the main team. Babkevich came out and, can say, brought the game closer to its logical conclusion. Phenomenal height. Looking at our team - we are great. There is room to add, of course, but under no circumstances should we hang our noses.

"Yenisei" proved, that it is possible to defeat such high-class opponents, but for this to happen all the circumstances must be right. We were missing something. Были детские ошибки, от которых мы постепенно пытаемся избавляться. Соперник добавил на подаче, moved us away from the grid, стало тяжелее играть первым темпом, а с краев с таким блоком в принципе тяжело.

Блокирующий ВК «Газпром-Югра» Антон Андреев: Играли против гранда, против них тяжело играть. Первая партия получилась в борьбе, с эмоциями. Мы выдали прямо все, what could, I find, и не удержали эту планку во второй партии. In fact, тяжело держать такой уровень с «Зенитом», потому что «Зенит» диктует тебе условия, а не ты ему. В третьей партии мы оправились от стресса и под диктовку «Зенита», но старались забирать свои очки, a little bit was not enough. Был шанс, но сказался класс соперника.

Против Бабкевича защищаться не тяжело и не страшно, ты просто мяч не видишь (smiles - ed.). Есть шанс, если только он захочет полезть под себя и тогда он находит наши пальцы, ладошки… А так – он на недосягаемой для нас высоте. Янта останавливали блоком, помог и разбор, and that, что все ошибаются. Тяжелый перелет, fatigue, уже не так прыгает. Несколько ошибок сделал, искал наши пальцы.

Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra) 1: 3 Zenith (St. Petersburg)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
25.11.2025	19:00	CR 2025-2026

Results

Team	1	2	3	4	GENERAL.
Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)	25	8	23	19	1
Zenith (St. Petersburg)	23	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