Russia: Zenit Saint Petersburg, Zenit Kazan and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk secure places in Final 6

Zenit Saint Petersburg, Zenit Kazan and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk secured today advancement to the Final Six of the 2020/21 Russian Superliga Parimatch playoffs.
The 9th-placed Yugra-Samotlor were close to tying the series of the Preliminary Round against no.4 Zenit Saint Petersburg, as the Nizhnevartovsk club squandered a 2-set surplus, failing to take advantage of the exhaustion of the rivals who played the rematch of the CEV Cup final, only three days ago.
With 25 points including 4 winning blocks, Egor Kliuka led the Saint Petersburg side to a turnaround and a progression to the Final Six.

Also the reigning champions and no.6 Lokomotiv Novosibirsk defeated the 7th-placed Ural Ufa in a dramatic five-sets match (that lasted for 2 hours and 19 minutes) to advance to the final tournament. The most prolific player of the Game 2 was Serbian Dražen Luburić, the opposite of the winning side.
Thanks to 24 points of Maksim Mikhaylov, the 3rd-seed Zenit-Kazan beat no.10 Enisey in four sets without lot of problems (except in first set) and secured a place in the Final Six, while No.8 ASK swept 5th-seed Fakel Novi Urengoy and tied the series at 1-1. Ukrainian Dmytro Viietskyi top-scored the winning side with 14 points.

| 2020/21 Russian Superliga Parimatch, Preliminary Round playoffs – Game 2:

• Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk (9) – Zenit Saint Petersburg (4) 2-3 (25:19, 25:22, 18:25, 13:25, 12:15) Serie: 0-2
Top Scorers: Makarenko 18, Masliev 15, Papazov 13, Tzepkov 9; Kliuka 25, Podrebinkin 17, Camejo 14, Pashytskyy 13, Iakovlev 12.

• ASK Nizhniy Novgorod (8) – Fakel Novy Urengoy (5) 3-0 (25:22, 25:23, 25:19) Serie: 1-1
Top Scorers: Vietskiy 14, Melnikov 12, Titich 11, Pyatirkin 9, Nikonenko 6; Volkov 19, Zhigalov 12, Boldyrev 6, Dikarev 5.

• Ural Ufa (7) – Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (6) 2-3 (21:25, 28:26, 32:30, 17:25, 16:18) Serie: 0-2
Top Scorers: Perrin 18, Rybakov 18, Feoktistov 16, Kulikov 12, Kolenkovskiy 9; Luburic 30, Ivovic 16, Kurkaev 14, Rodichev 7, Lyzik 5.

• Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (10) – Zenit Kazan (3) 1-3 (31:29, 21:25, 13:25, 22:25) Serie: 0-2
Top Scorers: Klets 24, Zhuk 11, Skrimov 10, Iereshchenko 8; Mikhaylov 24, Volvich 17, Voronkov 14, Volkov 10, Ngapeth 8.