The best four teams from last season’s Russian Men’s Volleyball Championship locked horns in Round 4 of this season’s competition.
In a duel of the two undefeated sides in the 2022-23 PARI Superliga for men (PARI Суперлига мужчины) valid for Round 4, the fourth-ranked club from last season, Zenit Saint-Petersburg, defeated the titleholders, Dinamo Moscow, 3-1 (25-23, 17-25, 25-21, 25-23). This was the first win of ’The Blue-White-Sky Blues’ over great rivals after 14 lost games in a row and almost three years (December 25, 2019), after which they remained at the top of the charts, tied in points with the most pleasant surprise of this season (along with Dinamo-LO) – Fakel.
Viktor Poletaev top-scored for Zenit St. Petersburg with 20 points, including 4 aces. Ivan Yakovlev made 6 blocks. The Bulgarian opposite, Tsvetan Sokolov scored 23 points for Dinamo, while Ilya Vlasov had 4 blocks.
In the other derby of this round in the Superliga, the current bronze medalists, Zenit-Kazan, earned a strong-willed victory in Novosibirsk over the vice-champions, Lokomotiv. The team commanded by Aleksey Verbov won after trailing 0-2 in sets.
Dmitriy Volkov was Zenit-Kazan’s most prolific player with 21 points. Andrey Surmachevskiy and Artem Volvich collected 4 blocks each. Ilya Kazachenkov scored 32 points on the losing side.
Fakel continued to positively surprise the Russian public. The Novy Urengoy side outplayed second-to-last and also winless Stroitel from Belarus at home. Thus, the team commanded by the former legendary ’Zbornaya’ member, Roman Yakovlev, extended its winning streak to four matches and no defeats. Stanislav Dineykin, the son of another big name in Russian volleyball of the same name and last name, put down 16 points for Fakel.
2022-23 PARI Superliga for men – regular season, Round 4:
October 20:
Nova – Dinamo-LO
