The last home round of the main stage of the Russian Premier League A championship was hosted by volleyball club Academia-Kazan at the Burevestnik Sports Complex. Last weekend, the opponents of Maksim Maksimov's charges were one of the outsiders of the West zone, volleyball players of Iskra (Moscow Region).
Academy-Kazan had a confident start to the 12th round, and the magic of the home ground gave them a lot of energy. Winning one point after another academicians at first had a minimal advantage - 25:23, and in the end of the second game increased the gap to four goals (25:21). Only in the third set the visitors managed to put up a fight and brought the game to a tie-break. True, the hosts had better nerve, winning the game 30:28.
The second set started on the same way - the academicians outplayed the guests in the first two games (25:20, 25:23). In the third set Iskra managed to take the lead, eventually outscoring Kazan State in the closing stages 22:25. The fourth game Maximov's wards started more deliberately, but in the end of the set the visitors took advantage of the situation and brought the game back to a tie-break. But even this time the host team played reliably and won 27:25.
Maksim Maksimov, head coach of Academia-Kazan, mentioned that on the first day the game was influenced by the injury of one of the leading players of the host team. "It was a bit easier for us. But, in fact, we played a different Iskra, not the one we had prepared for," Maxim Maksimov stressed. - On the second day we felt that the opponents played for themselves and for that guy, it was more difficult. When we led 2-0 at the games, the visitors pulled out a certain reserve; they took everything and hammered everything away. Our shot blocking didn't work at all. But we played more reliably on a more-or-less balance, thanks to our aggressive serve. In the second game we experimented a little bit with the line-up, there is a need for that in the future.
