On Tuesday night, Dinamo KAZAN of Russia rallied to a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-8, 25-23, 25-12) in their first matchup with Serbia’s Vizura BEOGRAD scheduled for the quarterfinals of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women.

The fans in Kazan deserved a warm welcome to the visitors from Serbia but the competition on the court was fierce and the players of Dinamo were not keen to make it an easy ride for their opponents. Vizura came out with all guns blazing cruising to an early 6-5 lead in the first set but Dinamo KAZAN levelled the score on a service error by Serbian middle blocker Sladjana Eric. After that, Irina Voronkova went to serve and she literally crashed the Serbian reception with her powerful serves. Dinamo KAZAN scored 13 times in a row, rallying to a 19-6 lead as Voronkova recorded five aces to pave the way to a landslide 25-8 win.

However, Vizura BEOGRAD fought back bravely in the second set where they claimed a 10-6 lead before the Tatars were able to storm back and make it 12-all. It was a close affair through to the end of the set as neither team could break away – only towards the end the Serbian team made two consecutive errors, Dinamo edged ahead at 24-23 and Daria Isaeva finished it all off at 25-23 for the home side.

Voronkova and Isaeva scored repeatedly in the early stages of the third set and propelled Dinamo KAZAN to a compelling 16-9 lead at the second technical time-out. Vizura attempted a comeback but their attacks were often stopped by the imposing Russian block. The head coach of Vizura, Jovica Cvetkovic, tried to disrupt Voronkova’s performance from the service line with a series of time-outs and he eventually broke her series at 21-11. However, it was too late to come back for the visitors and Isaeva sealed a 3-0 victory for Dinamo after only 68 minutes of play.

Alexander Perepelkin, assistant coach of Dinamo KAZAN: “I think that in the second set we got to see the real value of Vizura BEOGRAD. They have a good team and they played good Volleyball, especially in the second set. I think that they somehow felt the pressure resulting from the quality players standing on the other side of the net and of course, they were not playing at home. We know already that the return match will be a completely different story since it is much easier for them to play at home. It is obvious that they have a young, energetic and audacious team. Even when they were trailing by 10 points, their eyes were still sparkling and you could see that they were already looking for a revenge. I nevertheless hope we will be able to win the rematch in Serbia too.”  

Jovica Cvetkovic, head coach of Vizura BEOGRAD: “Congratulations to Dinamo KAZAN. They have a very good team and they played at a very high level. I would like to thank the audience for their warm welcome. I think they enjoyed the match. However, I am very surprised by the many mistakes we made in reception. Powerful serves as those of Dinamo are not such a rare thing in the Serbian national league, but apparently, our young players do not have enough experience in terms of international matches. After our heavy loss in the first set, I told my players they could challenge Dinamo and could even beat them if they remained focussed and executed what they were being told to do. We played good but our young players simply lack experience to finish such a close set in their favour. I am sure we will put up a fight in Belgrade and we hope to win the second match. We now had the opportunity to see, know and feel how Dinamo KAZAN play.”