Zenit-Kazan vs. Nova | HIGHLIGHTS | 1/4 Finals (1st Game) | SuperLeague 2025-2026

The match with Nova ended the regular season for the Kazan team, and they started the playoffs with the same team. However, the opponent had already played one round and eliminated Fakel Yamal from the tournament. During this series, Nova lost their main setter, Nikola Jovović, due to an injury, and he was successfully replaced by Oleg Terentyev.

From the very first sets, the Kazan team attacked their opponents with powerful serves, and they also excelled in blocking and defense. In the attack, Dmitry Volkov scored one ball after another, rapidly increasing his team's advantage to 7:1. Novi's leader, Romanas Škuliavičius, constantly received heavy emergency balls, leading to mistakes (3:12, 4:17). The visitors were unable to respond effectively. Novi's unsuccessful receiver, Pavle Perić, was replaced by Vladislav Polochanin, but he also made two mistakes before the end of the set. In the end, it ended in a rout – 25:11. Oleg Mikanovich's team only managed to convert 21% of their attacks (6/29) and added one block. Another 4 points were lost due to mistakes by Zenit players.

After the break, Nova got back into the fight and even led the score 5:3. However, the Kazan team quickly regained the initiative and made a breakthrough with the help of Konstantin Abaev's serves (10:9 - 13:9), who made a successful pass before leaving the court. Maxim Mikhailov blocked his opponent, Škuliavičius, and sent him to the bench, allowing Nikolay Zubov to enter the game. However, Zubov was unable to turn the tide of the match. Zubov was blocked by Volkov, and before that, Dmitry hit an ace at Polochanin – 22:16. The Nova players made a lot of mistakes (10) even in the first set, so the score difference was again large. In the second set, Mikhailov scored 5 out of 7 balls (71%).

Volkov immediately got down to business: an ace to Polochanin, a block to Zubov, and a successful attack from the back row. All of these break points allowed Zenit to build a solid lead of 10:5. As soon as the visitors closed the gap to -3, Alexey Verbov took a preventive timeout and also knocked Polochanin off his serve. Then Zenit started churning out blocks. Alexey Kononov read Polochanin's pip, and Mikhailov managed to get in third and stop Zubov's attack – 19:14. The Kazan team confidently led the match to victory.

VFV - volley.ru