Russia: Zenit St. Petersburg trample over Lokomotiv and become new leaders of Superliga. Win also for Surgut

Zenit Saint Petersburg settled at the top of the 2020/21 Superliga Parimatch regular season: they trampled over reigning champions Lokomotiv in Round 18 of the competions in straigh sets: 25:20, 25:12, 25:15. The team coached by Finnish Tuomas Sammelvuo recorded the 7th successive victory in the competition and, which is more important, took over the leadership in the charts from Kuzbass.
Viktor Poletaev stood out on the winners with 20 points, which he collected through an 84 % attack (16/19), while Egor Kliuka set up 6 blocks.

In the recovery match of Round 6 Gazprom Surgut won 3-1 against Dinamo LO which will be repeated today on the same field for Round 18. With the 3 points the Siberian team leaves the last place in the standings and leaps to eleventh.

📌| Recovery match of Round 6 | January 16
• Gazprom Surgut — Dinamo LO 3-1 (25:19, 19:25, 25:17, 25:22)
Top Scorers: Shchakhbanmirzaev 18, Kostilenko 15, Fialkovskiy 13, Chereiskiy 10; Alekseev 19, Biryukov 18, Abrosimov 9, Shpilev 5.

📌| Results & Program Round 18

🗓| January 16
• Lokomotiv Novosibirsk – Zenit St. Petersburg 0-3 (20:25, 12:25, 15:25)
Top Scorers: Luburic 13, Savin 6, Rodichev 5, Kurkaev 4, Shcherbinin 3; Poletaev 19, Kliuka 14, Ursov 9, Pashytskyy 5, Iakovlev 5, Brizard 4.

🗓| January 17
• Gazprom Surgut – Dinamo LO 3-2 (23:25, 25:23, 22:25, 25:21, 17:15)
• ASK Nizhniy Novgorod – Belogorie Belgorod 3-0 (25:20, 25:20, 25:22)
• Ural Ufa – Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 3-1 (27:25, 22:25, 25:23, 25:18)
• Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk – Fakel Novy Urengoy 2-3 (16:25, 22:25, 25:23, 25:22, 12:15)
• Zenit Kazan – Dinamo Moscow 0-3 (22:25, 24:26, 18:25)
• Neftyanik Orenburg – Kuzbass Kemerovo 1-3 (22:25, 25:20, 22:25, 27:29)

📄| Standings
Zenit St Petersburg 39
Kuzbass Kemerovo 37
Zenit Kazan 37
Dinamo Moscow 35
Fakel Novy Urengoy 31
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk 24
Ural Ufa 23
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 21
Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 21
Belogorie Belgorod 16
Gazprom Surgut 13
ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 12
Dinamo 11
Neftyanik Orenburg 10