At the weekend, the hall of the sports complex "Burevestnik "hosted the matches of the first round of the Major League" A "of the Russian volleyball championship:" Academy-Kazan "hosted the Nizhny Novgorod team"ask". The start was victorious: our team won both games.
Recall that the coaching staff of "Academy-Kazan" - farm club of Kazan "Zenit" - could not count in this match on the player Ignat Danilov, summoned to the main team instead of the injured Alexei Spiridonov. In the absence of Danilov, the starting line-up for the game" academicians " looked like this: Matvey Elizarov, Alexey Kobilev, Alexander Dyachkov, Stepan Novoselov, Denis Antonov, Slavomir Byarda and Vladislav Babichev.
More than six months have passed since the last official home match of "academicians". During the long off-season, the team was greatly updated, noticeably younger. These factors did not allow to make any predictions about the outcome of the meetings with the ASC, which caused an increased audience interest. The Academy clearly missed volleyball: in both matches, the stands of the sports complex "Burevestnik" were Packed to capacity.
The strong support of the fans, the electrified atmosphere in the hall, plus the starting character of the match clearly made the young academics nervous. Excitement can be explained that in the first minutes the hosts did not go to the game at the reception. And in the middle of the first game, the head coach Konstantin Sidenko makes a replacement – instead of Denis Antonov, another newcomer of the team, Roman Pakshin, comes to the site.
Castling allowed to level the game, but not to save the set. The citizens managed to keep the advantage, ending the game in their favor - 25:20.
The beginning of the second game is also for the guests-4: 8. Our guys manage to organize the chase and reduce the backlog thanks to successful actions in the attack. The whole second batch of the team are level on points 17:17, 18:18, 19:19. Opponents prefer long draws quick attacks immediately, and quickly "removed". In this "cabin" volleyball players "Academy" manages to snatch victory in the end of the party-25: 23. On the wave of success, having felt confidence of the forces hosts involved in the ASC and in the third - 27:25. 2: 1 on sets, until victory in match, the remains one step, but...
On the fourth batch of guests come assembled and tuned to the fight. The hosts do not seem to cope with the excitement and again begin to make mistakes: both at the reception and on the pitch. Nizhegorodians skillfully use the opponent's blunders and transfer the game to a tie-break, winning the game 25: 18. 
The fifth, decisive game initially takes place in an absolutely equal fight, the teams go point to point. Soon "academicians" manage to break away-7: 4. But the guests do not intend to give up. Several successful draws in their performance and the score is already 10: 9 in favor of ask. Fortunately, at this point, the powerful support of the hall does not bother, but rather inspires the young guys of the Academy to storm. The score is 14: 12, Denis Antonov serves strongly and makes it difficult to receive the opponent, Nizhny Novgorod has nothing more than to throw the ball over the net. The right to a decisive blow the passer gives Antonov and that, beautiful and strong Pope puts an end to the match. There is the first victory! The most productive players of the first match in the "Academy" were Alexey Kobilev and Denis Antonov, who scored 21 points.
The paired matches have their own specifics. Playing two days in a row with the same opponent is not easy, as coaches and players often admit. Especially when the first duel takes place in such persistent fight what developed on the platform of "Petrel" on Saturday. Before the second game between the "Academy" ask, and it was impossible to predict – whether with spirit, a more experienced team from Nizhny Novgorod after a disappointing defeat in equal game or an ambitious and young team of Volga region Academy will issue a double victory on courage? Happened the second! Such a clear excitement in the camp of academics, which was before the first game, has not been observed. The team felt confident in their abilities. The starting lineup of the Academy on the second day not much has changed – instead of Alexander Dyachkov from the first minute was the novel Pakshin, and place the Libero took the young Ilya Fedorov from "Zenith-UOR", replacing declared this day on the super League match in the squad of "Zenit-Kazan" Vladislav Babichev.
From the first minutes of the game the team of Konstantin Sidenko took over the initiative: 8:4, 16:13, 21-19, 25:20. The guests did not manage to catch up with the hosts until the end of the game. And the second game was held in a similar scenario, culminating in the victory of "Academy" (25:22). After the beginning of the third set, the hosts took 8:2, doubt in their victory disappeared. The most productive in the composition of the our team in the second match, the became Denis Antonov (16 points).
- In Saturday's match, the first game was very difficult, - Konstantin Sidenko said after the second game. - Still, in such a composition, the guys for the first time came to their official game. Only Vlad Babichev from Saturday's line-up played in our base last year. Now we have a brand new team. So there was excitement, unforced errors, non-installation actions. Then everything returned to normal. The most important thing in this match is the final victory. The second game is a continuation of the first. The guys came to the site on an emotional rise, besides they are young, recovering quickly. Over-age players ask for it takes more time. Although after the first round, we should not talk about it-the beginning of the championship, everyone should be in good shape.  We took the first points in the championship at the expense of team play and team spirit. The championship is just beginning, but it is already clear that we have it. The boys want to play, their eyes are burning. Run for any balls, beat, insure.  Though young, but do it confidently. The team worked well together in the offseason. Well done - I have no other words no words! Meanwhile, our main task remains that more young moved into the first team.