Ekaterinburg, Russia, March 12, 2015.  In tonight’s stand-off with Greece’s AON Pannaxiakos NAXOS, the home ladies of Uralochka-NTMK EKATERINBURG booked their semifinal spot in the 2015 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup - Women with another straight-set victory, this time by 3:0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-12).  The Russian team will face Ukraine’s Khimik YUZHNY in a direct battle for a place in the final.

From the very start of the match Uralochka took the initiative and did not let it out of their hands through the last point.  Uralochka's first tempo attacking line of Irina Zaryazhko and Sinead Jack showed excellent execution and a very confident general team performance maintaining a solid lead throughout the first set.  Pannaxiakos’s head coach Atanas Petrov made his attempts to turn the flow around using up all the time-outs and substitutes.  However, Uralochka managed to hold up to their high level and made almost no unforced errors to win by 25-15.  The second and the third sets followed a similar plot and eventually brought the match to an end, after 25-18 and 25-12.

The best scorers on the match were Irina Zaryazhko with 14 points and young outside spiker Kseniia Ilchenko with 13 points.   Milica Jovic was the top scorer of Pannaxiakos with 10 points.

Nikolay Karpol, head coach of Uralochka:  “Tonight we made substantially fewer mistakes than our opponents and managed to keep a good level.  We are looking forward to the next stages in the Challenge Cup and the semifinal matches against Khimik.”

Atanas Petrov, head coach of Pannaxiakos:  "It was very difficult for us tonight as we played against a very strong opponent.  We were not able to manage our serving, reception and attack.  Uralochka is a team, not only of a higher volleyball level, but also in terms of players’ height.  I wish them success in the next round."

Click here for more details including match statistics.