In the third match of the second tour in Poland, Dinamo-Ak Bars KAZAN defeated the Czech Olomous in four sets and finished its performance in the Champions League in season 2020/2021.

 

One has to admit that the Kazan team’s performance in the current Champions League season has been unsuccessful. This is true for the Russian women’s volleyball in general, as neither Moscow Dinamo, nor Kaliningrad Lokomotiv managed to get to playoff of this prestigious European Cup. However, just as in the first tour, Dinamo-Ak Bars KAZAN managed to sugar the end a little by winning the Czech Olomous. The most encouraging is that the Russians did it almost with young players only.

 

The overall despondency in the Kazan team apparently touched upon the youth, too, making it difficult to start the game – 6:5. But the advantage of the Russian forwards in height was so large that the young Dinamo players attacked above the Czechs’ block. At that, the Kazaners’ block was almost impassable for their rivals – 19:14. Tatiana Kadochkina, who played as the opposite today, just shot up the Czechs’ part of the court gracefully, easily, and almost without hindrance.

 

However, such an advantage of one team always bears the risk of losing concentration. For example, on the day before, Olomous, taking the advantage of their rivals’ looseness, managed to win one set even with the Italian Novara. The same fate awaited the Kazan youth today. Besides, the Czechs purposefully chose Arina Fedorovtseva the target of their serves, who was obviously very tired playing three days without a substitution – 10:9 after Madsen’s ace. Nevertheless, even in such situation the Russians managed to retain leadership for a long time, with the Czechs equalizing not earlier than in the very end – 19:19. Then, taking the advantage of the Kazaners’ mistakes due to fussiness, their rivals chalked up and won the set.

 

The young Russians, already depressed with the previous defeats, almost lost their spirit – 3:6. The situation was saved by Fedorovtseva, whom the colleagues protected at receiving. Then Arina descended a storm of attacks upon the rival – 10:9. Sure, the stirred up Czechs resisted for some time. But their leader Maria Schlegel was tightly blocked – 20:16. Fedorovtseva and Kadochkina smashed the rivals.

 

In the fourth set, the Kazan volleyball players started to smile, at last. The girls got engaged in the game and forgot about the previous failures. With the high spirit, the Russians did even better – 12:6 after a series of sophisticated serves by Taisia Konovalova. The Kazan block worked well several times again – 19:10. Kadochkina and Fedorovtseva’s hits seemed to become even more irresistible than before. The victory was not long in coming.

 

Champions League. 4th round. Group E. 2nd tour.

Dinamo Ak-Bars – Olomouc - 3:1 (25:18, 22:25, 25:20, 25:15)

4 February. Poland. Police. Hala ZS im. I. Lukasiewicza

Referee: Michlic A. (Poland). Match time: 1.34 (22+27+23+22).

Dinamo: Koroleva (6), Kotikova (9), Popova (5), Fedorovtseva (24), Kadochkina (30), Konovalova (7) – starting line-up, Podkopaeva (libero), Biryukova (3).

Olomouc: Madsen (5), Pilepic (3), Nova (11), Stumpelova (7), Valkova – С, Schlegel (21) – starting line-up, Kulova (libero), Lazarkova (7), Kneiflova, Smidova (2).

Points – 97:78, serve – 6:8, spike – 58(52%):44(35%), block – 20:4, reception – 43%:39%, errors – 24:17.

(Statistics by “Dinamo Ak Bars” coach-statistics M.Kuzovenin)