Plus three points, minus two finishers

"Gazprom-Ugra" (KhMAO-Yugra): Kostadinov village - Nikiforov, Demakov - Andreev, A. Kostadinov – Rodichev, Nagaec

MSTU (Moscow): Anoshko – Shkredov, Filippov – Ganenko, Shchadilov – Kotov, Frolov

The hosts started off like a boss, with ace Slavi Kostadinova. Two more freeballs on his serve and on the scoreboard 5:1. In response, Shkredov flies powerfully from behind the front: Ganenko flew in and closed Nikiforov, plus Maxim himself finished playing a freeball of his own making, 5:4.

The second time the score breaks on Nikiforov's serves: ace and strikes into touch by Kotov and Shkredov, 11:6. Rodichev knocks Kotov out of the move (13:7) and Ivan Korotaev appears on the site. The guests continue to make a lot of mistakes on the net and serve, Alexander Kostadinov, after his hit on the rope, corrects himself into an oblique diagonal and gets a couple more breaks with a serve and a pipe discount, 18:10. The Nagaian begins to work miracles in defense, Kostadinov is active on the grid on his birthday, and Demakov puts the glider in Korotaev, 25:14.

In the second set, Zhos came out to pass for the guests and gave speed and quality to Shkredov. But first there was the birthday boy's ace, 5:2. Five accurate attacks from Shkredov equalize the balance, 11:11. Alexander Kostadinov equalizes the score with a strike on an emergency ball (12:12), but lands on the blocker's foot and twists his ankle. Not the most pleasant birthday gift, and on the site - Pavel Kuklinsky. An important moment from a psychological point of view at the mark 15:14: the hosts don't score twice, having freeball, but Shchadilov throws the ball into touch on a clean net...

Another freeball on a short serve by Rodichev and Slavi scores himself, 18:15. Kotov, who came out of the square, reduces the distance with a powerful serve., 20:19. Another knockout serve, but Kuklinski wins back a heavy ball from the block and immediately puts in an ace, 22:19. But at the same time holding on to the shoulder - relapse of injury, because of which Pavel missed the last games. The next episode should be included in all the cuts called “what was that?!»: Pavel hands over a banal parachute from a support, not capable of a larger shoulder, but Muscovites are confused in the testimony and refuse to accept this. Let's write it down - ace, 23:19.

Kuklinskiy can no longer throw the next serve over the net and on the second set point he is replaced for medical reasons by the barely warmed-up Fidan Gusamov, summoned from YUKIOR in the context of Andrei Bobrov’s departure to help in Tyumen. There is a long pause as the necessary information is entered into the protocol, after which the serve predictably flies to Gusamov, he brings it up, and Rodichev sends the teams to the third set.

The guests immediately predictably attacked Gusamov with a serve, left without alternative on the site. Fidan was not mistaken, but didn’t give quality either, plus he was not too persistent in attack. Shkredov hit an ace, when Nagaets tried to help in reception (3:6), then Gusamov twice failed to cope with not the simplest problems on the grid, 3:8. However, then he scored under the skin and overcame his excitement, despite another missed ace, this time from Korotaev, 6:10.

Gusamov accepted and scored, 8:11, and soon a disaster happened to MSTU in the arrangement with the binder leaving the first zone. Ugra residents collected seven break balls on Demakov gliders: it all started with Rodichev’s jewelry completion, continued with the Slavi discount. Shkredov stood firm and after an unsuccessful attempt to play a la Ngapet, Aksyutin went to the fourth zone to save the situation. And immediately fell under the block. Block Ganenko, another fence from Slavi Aksyutin, two MSTU timeouts, and on the scoreboard 16:12 in favor of "Gazprom-Ugra".

Muscovites have never recovered from such a blow.. He also came out to serve and organized a break ball for Kotov, Frolov was still playing in defense, and Korotaev was confident on the net, but these were all individual feats - the team game was over. In the end there was an attempt to save the game due to unjustified risk on serve, Andreev was blocked on the second match point (the first one missed with a serve in Slavi's field), but the same Andreev finished everything, 25:22.

Comments after the game:

Senior coach of VK MSTU Mikhail Beketov: we, Unfortunately, we still don't understand, why are we doing this and why?. therefore, you know, all these alibis and excuses, I'm tired of all this already. it, probably, worst game of the season. The most shameful. It's time to dig around... End of the season! Say something positive, I can’t make any excuse for these guys, and I don't want to, probably. So that, probably, this is how we end this season, and then we’ll look for other people and that’s it.

Libero VK MSTU Frolov: Today, first of all, there was not enough overall play. The number of errors was off the charts, in simple moments, there, where we must not make mistakes. We made all these mistakes today, as a result the score is on the scoreboard. We know, that we can't be wrong, but we can’t get over ourselves. And this happens all season.

Coach of VC Gazprom-Yugra Alexander Chefranov: Cannot be said, that the match was easy. There were some nuances, but they won, probably, thanks to the opponent's poor performance. They made a huge number of mistakes, it was a little easier for us. Sure, injuries made adjustments to the game, but the guys did it, played, as they say, for myself and for that guy. Well done, fighters, proved, that at the right moment, in critical situations we can unite and act as one.

In the third game everything coincided: and Vanka Demakov had a good glider, and the opponent had a way out of the first zone, the opponent could not withdraw for a long time, and the team worked perfectly in this situation. There were a lot of mitigations, pre-game balls. Well, then that's it, probably, psychology. Decided the fate of the match in one formation. Well done guys from YUKIOR. Anyway, when you rise from the youth league to not even the big league, and straight into the Super League - only a few will feel confident. Well done, did not shy away. There are some errors, shortcomings, but that's ok. These are young guys, they have everything ahead. We will continue to attract them, work with them.

Final player of VC Gazprom-Yugra Alexander Kostadinov: I wouldn't say, that we won today without a fight. In the first game they adapted to us a little, we were just doing our job. In the second game they strengthened their serve a little and made life difficult for us in receiving.. Plus injuries had an impact, which is why we played the third game with a struggle. But Fidan came out very well, young boy.

We've been trying to play our game all season., find your game, to approach the playoffs in better shape. We don’t underestimate our opponents at all, for us all opponents are the same, be it Kazan, be it MSTU. Personally, I am most offended by the injury I received today.. I'm standing here now, and my ankle is sprained. It's my birthday, I have to go for an x-ray tomorrow. How do you think I feel??

– Plans changed for birthday?

– And they weren’t there (smiles - ed.).

Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra) 3: 0 MSTU (Moscow)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
20.02.2026	19:00	CR 2025-2026

Results

Team	1	2	3	GENERAL.
Gazprom-Yugra (KhMAO-Yugra)	25	25	25	3
MSTU (Moscow)	14	22	22	0

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

MSTU (Moscow)

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