Zurich, Switzerland, February 6, 2014. Dinamo KAZAN won the first Playoff 6 game of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Champions League - Women against Volero ZÜRICH by 3:1 (20-25, 25-14, 27-25, 25-22). The Swiss underdogs were not able to convert some important set points. Olesia Rykhliuk scored 25 points to win the duel of the opposites against Ekaterina Gamova who finished with 22 points.
It was like a déjà vu for both teams. Volero and Dinamo had already played against each other during the pool stage of this season’s edition of the league. The Swiss champion had lost the first game at home, but managed to win by 3:2 in Russia.
Now Dragutin Baltic’s team had the opportunity to finally win at home against the powerful opponent. After Dinamo KAZAN unexpectedly lost the Russian Cup final against Dinamo MOSCOW, Volero had hoped that their visitors would be nervous for the big game. The Swiss even got a big support by former player Norisha Campbell, who created a good atmosphere with a concert.
The game was very tight at the very beginning of the set, but the Swiss blocking game became stronger and top scorer Olesia Rykhliuk found ways to break through the strong Russian defense. As a result, the home team took an 18-14 lead. The Russians seemed to become nervous and started to dispute some of the decisions made by the referees. Volero took advantage of the opponent’s down and won the first set by 25-20.
However, as the home team started to struggle in the second set, Dinamo found their way back into the game. The leader of the Russian championship already led by 8-5 at the first technical time-out and Volero was under pressure. Dragutin Baltic’s players could neither break through the Russian wall at the net nor stop Dinamo’s strong attacking game. The team from Kazan made a great run and Regina Moroz put an end to the second set by a strong smash for the final 25-14.
Dinamo took the flow into the third set. Rishat Gilyazudtinov‘s players led by 4-1 as their offensive game was almost unstoppable. Volero tried to fight their way back into the game and suddenly the Swiss were able to put more pressure on the Russians. As a result, Volero tied the game at 16-16. The home heroines even got the chance to win the third set, but were not able to take advantage of three set points. On the other side, Dinamo Kazan showed Zurich how it should be done and won the third set upon its first set point by 27-25.
The Swiss struggled at the beginning of the fourth set and had to fight against a 4-7 deficit. However, Volero fought its way back by better offensive performance and could even take the lead by 14-11. The 1540 spectators wanted more now and believed in the big comeback of their team. But the Russians turned things around and won the fourth set by 25-22.
Volero lost the important first game at home in front of an incredible crowd. Now the Swiss champions need an exploit in Kazan if they want to conserve their opportunity to play in the Final Round of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League in Baku.
Dinamo KAZAN’s head coach Rishat Gilyazudtinov said: “It was hard for us at the beginning of the game, especially after the defeat in the Russian Cup final. However, I am happy that we could win today. The game at home will not be easy as we have two other matches this weekend, but we want to win.”
Volero ZÜRICH’s assistant coach Jan Lindenmair commented: “Of course, we are disappointed after a defeat like this. We had big opportunities. Nevertheless, we could not get the kills at the very important moments. I think we would have deserved to win two sets.”
Volero captain Mira Golubovic added: “It is a pity. I am a little bit angry about us. We won this difficult first set and were not able to use this big opportunity afterwards. Dinamo did not change a lot in their game. However, we did not always follow our game plan. At this level, this makes the difference.”
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