Vladimir Alekno snatched victory in his away match against Plamen Konstantinov

Zenit (St. Petersburg) volleyball players defeated Lokomotiv 3:2 as guests in a postponed match from the 19th round of the Russian championship.

In the first game, the guests dominated in attack (71%), with particularly outstanding performance from receiver Egor Klyuka (5/5).

At the end of the second set, the team from Novosibirsk managed to come back from 21:23 thanks to opponent's errors, but Ilya Kazachenkov, who entered for a double substitution at the end, was blocked by Maxim Kosmin and the guests took a 2:0 lead in sets.

For Lokomotiv, the leader in attack after three played sets was Ilyas Kurkaev (10/13). His teammate Dmitry Lyzik (3/11) was not performing well in attack, but it was he who scored the winning point at the end of the third set for - 25:23. Lyzik had 8 (!) blocks and two aces after the end of the third game.

At the start of the fourth set, Kazachenkov made a sustained run with three aces (4:2-10:2). With the score at 13:6 for the hosts, Zenit's head coach Vladimir Alekno substituted all six starters, sending the leaders to prepare for the tie-break.

In the fifth set, Zenit was significantly better in blocking (4-0) and did not lose a single point in attack. For Lokomotiv, Kazachenkov lost five points in the tie-break, which was decisive for the loss.

Lyzik, with eight blocks and 17 points, became the most effective player in the match along with the Petersburg team's opposite Vladislav Babkevich (14/28, 50%).

Zenit recorded its ninth consecutive victory and climbed to third place in the standings. Plamen Konstantinov's team dropped to fifth place.