Dinamo Moscow are the new national champions of Russia. On Saturday, they defeated Zenit Saint Petersburg in the final of the men’s Superliga to claim the third title in the club’s history and shape up a golden treble, after winning the national cup and the CEV Cup earlier this season. Dinamo overcame the very same opponents in all three finals, and the very same athlete, Dinamo’s captain and Russian national team setter Pavel Pankov, was named MVP.
Bulgarian star Tsvetan Sokolov hammered out 27 points, including two aces and 24 winning spikes at a 59% success rate, towards Dinamo’s 3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24) victory over Zenit at the Final Six tournament in Moscow.
The opposite’s tally made him the top scorer of the match and upped his Superliga season total to 432 points. Sokolov proved to be the most efficient scorer of the season with the league high average of 5.20 points per set. The Bulgarian international was also the highest scorer of Friday’s semifinal against Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. He produced 19 points as the Muscovites dethroned last year’s champs by a score of 3-1 (25-17, 25-13, 16-25, 25-23).
Zenit Saint Petersburg took silver, their second medal in the Superliga, after another silver they claimed in 2018. Their middle Ivan Iakovlev, a Russian international and a 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Dream Teamer, was the best blocker of the season, delivering both the highest total number of stuff blocks, 95, and the highest per-set average of 0.81.
In their semifinal, Zenit outlasted regular season runners-up Kuzbass Kemerovo to take a hard-fought 3-2 (26-24, 22-25, 24-26, 25-22, 15-11) victory, with another Russian national team member, Egor Kliuka, topping the scorers’ chart on a total of 25 points, including four aces and two blocks, well supported by French international setter Antoine Brizard with five direct serving points.
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk finished the season with the bronze medals to climb the podium for the fourth time in their history. In the third-place match, they came back from a set down against Kuzbass to master a 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-13, 25-21) win. Their Serbian international opposite Drazen Luburic finished his amazing season as the best server of the Superliga on both total number of aces, 77, and per-set average of 0.68. He was also the second best overall scorer with 518 points to his name.
In Friday’s fifth-place match in Moscow, Zenit Kazan defeated Fakel Novy Urengoy by 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-15, 25-19). Zenit’s stellar opposite Maxim Mikhaylov, 2018 VNL MVP, outscored Fakel’s outside and two-time VNL Dream Teamer Dmitry Volkov by 22 points (including five aces) to 16 (also including five aces). In the season-wide charts, however, Volkov topped the scorers ranking on a total of 553 points, while Mikhaylov came third on 489 points. Volkov also led the spikers on a total 442 kills.
Main photo: Dinamo Moscow captain Pankov lifts the national championship trophy (source: volley.ru)
More volleyball from Russia:
Zenit Kazan knocked out as semifinalists emerge in Russia
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