Russia: Kazan ko also against Novosibirsk. Victory also for Moscow, St. Petersburg and, surprisingly, Surgut

Today Lokomotiv Novosibirsk ended the series of defeats from Zenit-Kazan that amounted to 18 matches. The last time when current club champions of Russia beat the giants from Tatarstan region was in fact in November 2014.
Both teams approached this match, valid for Round 15 of the 2020/21 Russian Superliga Parimatch regular season, not in the most joyful mood, losing semifinals of the Russian Cup in five sets each. In addition, Zenit-Kazan suffered three defeats in a row (two in the league and one in the cup), closing 2020 in a really bad way. In the opening set of today’s match Lokomotiv prevailed by a 43:41, in one of highest set scores in history of volleyball!
The most prolific player of the match was on the winning side was Sergey Savin, author of 24 points, while Ilyas Kurkaev also contributed with 4 blocks.
Among other results, Yenisey Krasnoyarsk’s sensational 1-3 home win against Gazprom Surgut stands out, thus claiming their first victory in the league following 11 defeats. There are several problems in the home team who had to play without Skrimov (already in the national team), and only fielded the starting diagonal Strilchuk-Klets not all the match.
Prediction respected instead on the other fields: Zenit Saint Petersburg earned their fourth win in a row, by beating in straight sets ASK Nizhniy Novgorod with 7 aces by Poletaev, while Dinamo Moscow recorded the third win in a row by beating Ural Ufa 3-1 with a Muzaj’s bad evening, finished on the bench after 2 sets.

📌| Results & Program Round 15

🗓| December 25
Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk – Kuzbass Kemerovo 3-1 (25:23, 25:21, 20:25, 25:23)

🗓| December 27
Neftyanik Orenburg — Belogorie Belgorod 3-2 (25-20, 21:25, 25:22, 24:26, 15:12)

🗓| December 28
• Dinamo LO – Fakel Novy Urengoy 2-3 (21:25, 25:23, 25:21, 19:25, 7:15)

🗓| December 29

• Yenisey Krasnoyarsk — Gazprom Surgut 1-3 (25:23, 15:25, 19:25, 15:25)
Top Scorers: Aksyutin 10, Iereshchenko 9, Kritskiy 7, Klets 6; Kostilenko 18, Shchakhbanmirzaev 18, Fialkovskiy 14, Chereiskiy 9.

• Zenit St. Petersburg — ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 3-0 (25:19, 25:17, 25:22)
Top Scorers: Poletaev 18, Iakovlev 11, Kosmin 8, Ursov 8, Kliuka 7; Titich 9, Vietskiy 8, Valeev 6.

• Dinamo Moscow – Ural Ufa 3-1 (25:19, 25:14, 17:25, 25:23)
Top Scorers: Sokolov 12, Likhosherstov 12, Vlasov 10, Pankov 8, Deroo 8, Podlesnykh 7, Shchkulyavichus 7; Perrin 12, Rybakov 10, Kolenkovskiy 9, Feoktistov 7, Muzaj 4, Kulikov 4.

• Zenit Kazan — Lokomotiv Novosibirsk 1-3 (41:43, 25:18, 20:25, 23:25)
Top Scorers: Mikhaylov 19, Ngapeth 14, Bednorz 13, Volvich 9, Volkov 9, Butko 2; Savin 24, Luburic 15, Kurkaev 14, Ivovic 13, Lyzik 7, Abaev 3.

📄| Standings
Zenit Kazan 34
Fakel Novy Urengoy 31
Dinamo Moscow 30
Zenit St. Petersburg 30
Kuzbass Kemerovo 28
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk 24
Ural Ufa 20
Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 20
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 17
Belogorie Belgorod 13
Neftyanik Orenburg 8
Dinamo LO 8
ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 7
Gazprom Surgut 3