Bulgarian international Simeon Nikolov is leaving Russia with a full set of season distinctions – silver from the Russian Super Cup, bronze from the championship, and bronze from the Russian Cup.
His team Lokomotiv Novosibirsk, led by Plamen Konstantinov, with assistant Andrey Zhekov, won the bronze medals in the Russian Cup tournament after a dramatic 3:2(18:25,25:22,24:26,25:22,15:12) victory over Zenit Kazan in the third-place match in Moscow.
Both teams fielded players with less playing time in the tournament, but the match offered a lot of fight and strong serving. The initial serve proved crucial for Lokomotiv's success, as they finished with 13 aces against 9 for their opponent.
Zenit started stronger and won the first set 25:18, after Artem Volvich led the Kazan team with an excellent serving streak and solid blocking. Lokomotiv had serious problems in attack, converting only 31% of their spikes.
Novosibirsk responded in the second set, where they put serious pressure with their serves and made five aces. Despite many errors, Lokomotiv leveled the match after a 25:22 win.
The third set again went to Zenit – 26:24, mainly thanks to Andrey Surmachevskiy, who scored 10 points in that set alone. Lokomotiv, however, did not give up. In the fourth set, Radjab Shakhbanmirzaev made two consecutive aces at the end, sending the match to a tie-break.
In the decisive fifth set, Lokomotiv took the lead after two consecutive aces by Fyodor Voronkov, and then a triple block stopped Dmitry Volkov for the final 15:12. Simeon Nikolov briefly entered the game at 11:9 and, after a missed serve, he exited the game again. He finished the match with one point from a serve.
The top scorer for Lokomotiv was Radjab with 22 points. Sam Deroo added 13, and Brazhnyuk finished with 11. For Zenit, Surmachevskiy scored 22 points, Labinsky added 17, and Drazen Luburić – 13.
Thus, Lokomotiv Novosibirsk finished the season with bronze from the Russian Cup, and Simeon Nikolov concludes his Russian period with three distinctions – silver from the Super Cup, bronze from the championship, and bronze from the Russian Cup. He is expected to depart from the Russian capital tomorrow, and most likely will not immediately join the national team.

Photo: lokovolley.com