Dinamo Moscow, Lokomotiv, and Zenit St. Petersburg notched a three-point-worth win each in their first matches in the 2022-23 Russian Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Dinamo Moscow started the 2022-23 PARI Superliga (PARI Суперлига) for men with a win. The titleholders defeated Stroitel, the Belarusian club who was the vice-champion of the Belarusian league last season, harder than expected. The Minsk side, the host, overcame the stage fright of a debut in the Russian top division after the first two sets but it was still insufficient for anything more than ripping one set off Dinamo for which Yaroslav Podlesnykh tallied 14 points and Anton Semyshev served 4 aces; 3 in a row at the decisive moment of the fourth set. Evgeniy Baranov made 90% reception (10 digs, 70% excellent).
Led by Viktor Poletaev (16 points) and Ivan Yakovlev (6 blocks), Zenit Saint Petersburg swept the visiting side of Enisey. Interestingly, these two clubs faced each other for the third time in less than a month, taking into account the past meetings of the preliminary stage of the Russian Cup and two friendlies a few days ago.
Just like two weeks ago within the preliminary stage of the Russian Cup, Lokomotiv prevailed over Nova. In the landslide victory of the current vice-champions over the visitors, Sergey Savin and Ilya Kazachenkov tallied 214 points apiece. Ilyas Kurkaev served 4 aces, while Semen Krivitchenko made 75% reception (16 digs, 1 error, 44% excellent).
2022-23 PAR Superliga for men – regular season, Round 1:
