Kazan, Russia, November 13, 2014. Dinamo KAZAN crushed Agel PROSTEJOV by 3:0 (25-21, 25-15, 26-24) in its opening home match of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women.

In Dinamo’s debut season back in 2011, the Tatars edged the Czech squad in an epic battle – five terrific sets that galvanized the Kazan crowd.  It was a real challenge for the young team from Tatarstan back then, but in the match of this year’s edition, Dinamo KAZAN that has already passed through the mill of various high-level competitions and challenging tournaments gave Agel the very ‘warm’ welcome it is truly capable of now.

Although at the outset of the game it was head-to-head rivalry, the generator of Dinamo KAZAN was gaining momentum. With the score at 10-10, when Cuban-born Liannes Castaneda Simon sealed a Czech attack, the home side turned the tide of the game and the whole pace of the match changed dramatically.  The rest of the set the Czechs were trying to resist the hammer-like attacks of Ekaterina Gamova and the quick hits by Elena Yureva.  All the attempts to counterattack were harshly suppressed by Dinamo’s blocks.  However, at the end of the set the guests had a little chance to come back when Dinamo players lost concentration having gained a serious advantage over the opponent.  So the head coach of Dinamo KAZAN Rishat Gilyazutdinov even had to take a time-out.  A clever tip by Elena Yureva that made half of the opponent’s players fall down on the floor was followed by Antonella Del Core’s lightning attack killing all hopes of Agel’s team in this set.

Dinamo broke away to 5-1 at the dawn of the second set.  However, the main reason the home squad took the lead was the fact that the Czechs were upset by losing the previous set.  Simon repeatedly played the ball out of bounds.  However, Miroslav Cada revived his team during a time-out and Simon scored a terrific ace.  With a couple of successful attacks Agel caught up.  The Cuban-born opposite’s upside did not stand for long and failed to withstand the mastery of the experienced Dinamo counterpart on the other side of the net.  With graceful attacks, Ekaterina Gamova made the score 12-9.  Dinamo picked up steam and was literally unstoppable!  The Russian serves steadily crushed Agel’s reception, every other time killing the rivals with outright aces.  A gorgeous classic pipe attack performed by Gamova sealed the second set at 25-15.

At the outbreak of the third set the home heroines kept on delighting the Kazan fans playing skillfully and inimitably.  Ekaterina Gamova’s spiking performance was simply amazing, but when she failed to kill the attack, her teammates always backed her up.  Blistering Eva Yaneva or unmatched Elena Yureva tortured the Czechs with quick hits.  Nonetheless, Agel went for a secret weapon - Belarusian wing spiker Tatsiana Markevich, who joined the line-up to pace up the Czech attacks resulting in a 2-point lead at 16-14.  It got worse and worse for the hosts as Tatsiana Markevich kept on fueling her team’s offense, leading to all that drama at the end of the set.  Rishat Gilyazutdinov set the record straight after taking a timely time-out and the last rallies turned into an impeccable solo of Ekaterina Gamova and game over for Agel.

Rishat Gilyazutdinov, head coach of Dinamo KAZAN:  “We are still far from our best condition.  There is also a number of objective reasons.  Our previously injured players are still not in their best form.  But, nevertheless, I am very happy to win because the opponent is not an easy team to deal with, a Champions League regular.  We clashed with this team two years ago and I know it always plays high-class volleyball.  Therefore, the result which we showed today, I believe, is more than satisfactory.  I think that to a great extent we faced all the troubles because we got relaxed after successfully and easily winning the second one.  The new ball is also rather unusual for us to play with, especially when you compare its trajectory with the previous one.  However, it is the first experience for us, and it is just great.”

Miroslav Cada, head coach of Agel PROSTEJOV:  “We played against the team which is always a tough rival for us, because Dinamo KAZAN has very good players.  They have powerful and aggressive serves which we failed to receive properly.  However, I think our defense was quite good, although they outplayed us in attack and were better at blocking.”