The volleyball team "Academy-Kazan" hosted one of the outsiders of the group "West" named after V.Ulyanov Izhevsk "IzhGTU-Dinamo" in the last round of the preliminary stage of the Russian Higher League A championship.
Maksim Maksimov's wards played confidently on their home ground at the Burevestnik sports centre, as the score in both meetings shows - 3:0.
In the first match the hosts completely controlled the game and finished all three games with quite a serious lead - 25:15, 25:11, 25:19.
The second meeting started with an unexpected pressure of the Izhevsk team and for the victory the Academicians had to test their luck on the game "more or less". As a result, the Kazan volleyball players were luckier - 28:26. But the next two sets again followed the scenario of the previous day, when Academy-Kazan won confidently - 25:15, 25:15.
According to Maxim Maksimov, head coach of VC "Academy-Kazan", the first game with the Izhevsk team was of special importance in terms of the final position in the standings.
"We had to win it to get into the top four. We threw all our energies into it. The guys played together and achieved the result, - said Maxim Maximov. - In the second meeting I gave the opportunity to play all those who had not played much, but with a special condition. The guys played twenty falls and worked them out at the end of the match".
As a result, the Academicians finished the preliminary round on the third line of the "West" group and now will continue their performance in the final tournament for places from the first to the eighth.
The calendar of matches and the results of the meetings can be seen in the fan-group of the team in "Vkontakte"
Text and photo: Pavel Zheleznyak
