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 After second round of Russian Superleague two teams have not lost a point, Novy Urengoi and Belgorod. Novy Urengoi beat Kaliningrad, Belgorod claimed 3:0 victory over Jekaterinburg.
It is too early to make any far-reaching conclusions after only two rounds of plays. Kazan and Odintsovo are in closely pursuit. Everybody expected convincing performance from Zenit and Fakel, yet the strong start of Iskra and Belgorod is a little bit surprise.
Tyumen – Yaroslavich (Yaroslavl) 2-3 (17:25, 20:25, 27:25, 25:18, 11:15)
This is another center-stage performance by dynamic duo Khamutskikh and Mikhailov. Mikhailov’s first round heroics of 64 attacks and 21 points was not enough to overcome last year runner-up Iskra. This time it clicked better between him and the man-with-beard. Mikhailov’s 44 attacks and 22 points carried Yaroslavl’s team to the victory. No doubt that Mikhailov is a great spiker. The question is how to get the rest of the team involved. Tyumen after loosing the first two sets staged a fearless comeback which failed just short to deliver overall victory. Nevertheless, Tyumen earned their first point in the Superleague.
Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut) – Dynamo (Moscow) 1-3 (18:25, 34:32, 23:25, 14:25)
So far it is up-and-down season for Dynamo. After impressive victory in Russian Supercup over Zenit on October 3, 2009, Dynamo suffered rather a humiliating defeat at the hands of young Belgorod team during the opening round of the 2010 Russian Superleague: 1-3 (22:25, 17:25, 25:19, 21:25). Three days later Dynamo proved that they can recover fast from a painful blow by trashing Surgut. Setter Grankin had a nice game distributing volleyball evenly between his star spikers Berezhko (16), Yakovlev (16) and Sivozhelez (15). But the best player of the night was Dynamo’s middle-blocker Tsherbinin (1989, 205 sm), who ended up scoring his team’s most 19 points. Courageous effort by Yugra’s stars Nosenko (20), Zbigniew Bartman (15), Shulepov (14) and setter Kolodinskyi (the best Russian beach volleyball athlete) was not enough.
Ural (Ufa) – Zenit (Kazan) 0-3 (19:25, 20:25, 23:25)
The matches between neighboring rival-cities Ufa and Kazan (550 km is not a distance for Russia) always mean a lot for hokey, football or volleyball fans. Yet this time Ural had no chances. It took a bit more than an hour for the defending champions and brilliant Lloyd Ball to silence the home crowd. Apalikov scored 19 points and became the second middle-blocker after Dynamo’s Tsherbinin to lead his team in scoring. Do we see the start of a good tradition here? Among the rest, Panteleimonenko scored 12 points, Cheremisin added 10 points coming out from the bench and Tetyukhin tallied 9. On the loosing side Serb Sasha Starovic got 13 points, Bovdui 9. Zenit’s head coach Alekno was comfortable enough to rest Clayton Stanley.
Lokomotiv-Belogorie (Belgorod) – Lokomotiv-Izumrud (Ekaterinburg) 3-0 (25:19, 25:18, 25:22)
These two teams started back in 90’s the glorious days of the Russian volleyball teams. But now they are in very different positions. Belgorod team kept its position in the Super League and is positioned well to improve in coming years. Izumrud just returned to the Superleague and is mainly concerned with surviving in the top division. In a surprising move Belgorod’s head coach Shipulin transfered six players from Metalloinvest to Lokomotiv. Three of them (spikers Biryukov, Ilinykh and setter Bagrei) together with returning Khtei, Musersky and Pole Lukasz Kadziewicz formed Belgorod’s starting lineup. This young squad did a fine job in the first round beating perennial powerhouse Dynamo and had not problem dismantling Ekaterinburg’s team. It is even more amazing considering that after 2009 season team lost such star players as Tetukhin, Khamutskikh, Kosarev and Rich Lambourne. Ilinykh lead Belgorod by scoring 16 points, followed by Khtei (15), Musersky (10) and Kadziewicz (9). Bulgarian Todor Aleksiev (14) was the best for Izumrud, followed by Gerasimov (9), Aleksandrovich (7) and another Bulgarian Hristo Tsvetanov (6).
Lokomotiv (Novosibirsk) – Iskra (Odintsovo) 2-3 (20:25, 22:25, 25:11, 25:20, 12:15)
Fakel ( Novy Urengoi) – Dynamo-Yantar (Kaliningrad) 3-1 (25:12, 19:25, 25:22, 26:24)
Numbers…. Well, a lot of numbers (Stats and etc.)
Best Scores:
Mikhailov – 31; Kiktev – 24; Boyarchuk – 21; Pavlov – 21; Nosenko – 20 ; Apalikov, Tsherbinin – 19.
Best Spikers (Points/Errors/Succ %):
Tsherbinin – 13/0/85; Atshev – 11/1/82; Korneev – 24/0/71; Kazakov – 18/1/67; Apalikov – 17/1/65; Panteleimonenko – 16/1/63
Best Blockers:
Apalikov – 8; Tsherbinin – 6; Atshev – 6.
Best Receivers (Total/Errors/Pos%):
Berezhko – 29/1/72; Biryukov – 25/0/72; Komarov – 52/2/75.
Aces:
Mikhailov – 5; Khtei – 4; Musersky, Grankin, Kosarev, Nilsson, Afinogenov – 3.
Next round will feature couple interesting games. Dynamo will face Fakel, Zenit meet Belogorie. Both games have all the promises to become Russian Superleague classics and definitely reveal a lot about the ambitions and potentials of the Superleague leaders.
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