Without miracles and diagonals
"Zenith" (St. Petersburg): Kobzar - Babkevich, Dikarev – Kosmin, Yant – Dineikin, Grebennikov
"Gazprom-Ugra" (Surgut): S.Kostadinov – Kirillov, Andreev – Tkachev, Rodichev - A. Kostadinov, Nagaec
The Yugra residents went to the game according to the scheme 4-2, with two binders, where does he pass, who's on the back line, and the one on the front performs the functions of a diagonal. Kirill Nikiforov got a chance to catch his breath, Dmitry Shevlyakov is recovering from treatment, Denis Litvinov and Pavel Kuklinsky did not play either. "Zenith", in front of, came out with the strongest lineup. But lost the debut 3:6 – Dineykin hit out, Alexander Kostadinov hit an ace, Kirillov scored with an attack from the second zone.
true, the owners immediately caught up, and then they took the lead - Kosmin imitated tossing the ball in his signature way and forced the guests to break their formation, 9:7. We didn’t take advantage of the chance to equalize on Slavi Kostadinov’s breaking serve – there was no one to pick up the freeball, in the end Dineykin took the chance, 12:10. He liked it so much, that despite the load in receiving the grid problems, Stas cracked like nuts: starred in a difficult situation (14:11) and closed it with Kirillov’s block (16:11). Bobrov appeared on the site briefly, got back from the block and returned to the square at the mark 18:15.
Tkachev with an ace in the corner of the fifth zone leaves chances, 20:17, but another freeball on Slavi’s next breaking serve puts us at a dead end again: the ball flies to our side and everyone is watching, how he falls. This is the cost of two setters on the court - Slavi ran to pass, and Kirillov simply does not have the skill of first touch in such situations. Whatever it was, 22:18 and Babkevich's ace on set point, 25:19.
We went through the second set almost without taking off., having at the same time a good refinement. Slavi and Maxim scored every other time, Alexander Kostadinov didn’t help either – and Yant committed atrocities on the hosts’ net, also noted as an ace, 15:8. Daniil Golovanov entered the diagonal instead of Slavi, scored a couple of times, but quickly left the field as part of a double substitution - Slavi and Andrey Bobrov came on. This did not change the situation in any way and Vladimir Alekno also made a double substitution, releasing Tisevich and Bocharov into the diagonal, and at the end they also released Pakshin instead of Yant. 25:18 – a hymn to the superiority of a powerful attack. Among the advantages we note, that's the first time, perhaps, during the season, Rodichev was forced to play a pipe - and successfully.
Bobrov entered the Gazprom-Yugra diagonal for the third set, and this, with all due respect, not Babkevich. That's about the difference, which was aggravated by Ace Dineykin, 8:4. But then Slavi’s serve broke through - an ace plus Andreev’s freeball attack, 10:10. Slavi gets another freeball, but Nagaets overdid it and brought the ball to the rope, where also Slavi was difficult to pick out, in the end, instead of a break, we got Andreev’s hit on an unprepared ball into the rope. The hosts push forward again: Babkevich turned on, Yant finished off the ball after his own attack and Bobrov's defense, 18:15.
at level 20:17 Slavi comes out to serve again and for once we block Babkevich in the fourth zone, the ball bounces towards the end line. Linesman calls out, we have no views, but the chief judge, to my credit, takes his own look - the ball hits the line! With the next serve, Slavi knocks Grebennikov out of the reception and brother Alexander is accurate on the freeball, 20:19. Vladimir Alekno takes a timeout for the first time in the match and receives an ace immediately after it, 20:20. Slavi makes a mistake in his next attempt, and Yant gives his arguments from behind the goal line and finishes off the game from the fifth zone, 22:20. 23:21 – Tisevich comes out to serve and makes it difficult for us to receive: first they soften Alexander Kostadinov, who played a set diagonally, and then Rodichev hits touch. Alexey is sure, that there was a touch of the block, but the judge doesn't take his own review this time, and we have our own, recall, not left. 25:21.
Natural result, taking into account our experiments with the composition. Many players were allowed to rest and recover from injuries before a series of decisive home matches. Was this decision the right one?, will show the results of the upcoming matches, in which we need to win. And to take victory away from St. Petersburg with prime Babkevich and Yante in any case would be a miracle.
3: 0 
Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)Details
| Date | Time | Championship |
|---|---|---|
| 10.02.2026 | 21:30 | CR 2025-2026 |
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | GENERAL. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenith (St. Petersburg) | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra) | 19 | 18 | 21 | 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 |
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 |
