Novosibirsk's "Lokomotiv" recorded their third victory since the start of the Russian championship and second in front of a home crowd, overcoming the "students" from MGTU Moscow with a decisive 3:0 (25:20, 25:18, 25:16). The hosts came out with a changed lineup, as some of the starters (Deru, Kurkaev) did not participate in the match. Moni Nikolov, however, played another strong match, finishing with 7 points (1 ace, 1 block), +3, and the highest rating of all - 7.6.
The highest scorer for the winners was Kazachenkov with 18 points, followed by Kurbanov with 12 and Lizik with 9.
For the team from the capital, Denis Getman was the only one with a double-digit score - 11 points.
The first set was the most contested, in which the hosts took a 4:0 lead (12:8) and did not relinquish their advantage until the end, despite a slight relaxation after the 20th point. It didn't pass without one of Moni Nikolov's signature moves, who jumped to set but let the ball pass into the opponent's court unopposed. In the second set, Nikolov made it into the statistics, scoring 2 points from attack (a dumped ball for 1:1 and a counter-attack for 2:3). Overall, the Bulgarian setter's serves were not particularly effective in this match (4 errors from 10 attempts), not that it went without an ace. Nikolov scored the most points in the last set, and they were from a block, an attack, and a serve - a block for 13:9, an attack for 14:10, followed by an ace for 15:10, and there was also a dump over the head in zone 4 (for 22:15), which accounted for all the Bulgarian's points in this set.
Lokomotiv will meet the team from the capital again on January 13.
The next match is again at home - on November 1 against Gazprom Yugra.

Photo: lokovolley.com