Last weekend, the "Akademia-Kazan" student team met with Yaroslavl's "Yaroslavich", the leader of the West Zone standings. Maksim Maksimov's charges played the sixth round in the Burevestnik Sports Complex.
The matches were held unexpectedly as the expected volley of the visitors met with a strong resistance from the hosts. Already in the first game the Academicians almost had the upper hand. The game was close to a tie-break, where Yaroslavl volleyball players were more reliable (27:29). In the second set the student team played more confident and won (25:21). Though in the next two sets the hosts were again "shy" and could not bring the game to its end, but the guests played safely (22:25, 22:25).
The second game was no less tense, but ended more unpredictably. The visitors continued their steady play, but not enough to win at least one game. Meanwhile the academicians were so selfless that they could take the revenge, as the saying goes, "in the dry" game - 3:0 (25:21, 29:27, 25:23).
Maksim Maksimov, head coach of VK Academia-Kazan, admitted that the team was preparing more thoroughly for the meeting with the subgroup leader. "We were analyzing the matches and getting ready for Yaroslavich. I believed in our team, I believed that we can win, - Maxim Maximov shared. - We lacked a little bit of coolness in the end sets on the first day. The visitors, on the contrary, were getting better in their serves. In the second match we were more balanced. We played cleaner, kept our serve and were more confident in the end. Winning at home over a good opponent - I think we can be happy with the overall result.
