Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, November 28, 2020 – Drazen Luburic hammered six aces to help reigning Russian champions Lokomotiv Novosibirsk earn their fifth win in the ongoing Superliga.
In a five-set rollercoaster of the 11th leg in the regular season on Friday, Loko claimed a 3-2 (27-29, 25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 15-13) victory at ASK Nizhny Novgorod to improve their win-loss record to 5-3 and move up to fifth place in the national standings ahead of next week’s trip to Italy for a CEV Champions League tournament.
In addition to his six direct serving points, the 27-year-old Serbian international delivered 21 successful spikes to top the scorers’ chart of the match on a total of 27 points. The 2.02m-tall opposite climbed to seventh place in the league’s overall scorers’ ranking with 122 points to his name over the eight matches played.
Luburic’s teammate Sergey Savin was also a prolific point-maker in this match. He added 24 points, including three blocks and an ace, to Lokomotiv’s victorious tally. 20-year-old Dmitrii Lyzik, a Russian junior international, impressed with seven kill blocks and an ace. The 2.14m-tall middle piled up a match total of 15 points.
On the other side of the net, Vitaliy Fetsov scored 23 points, including four blocks, for the home team.
In another Superliga game played on Friday, the outside hitter of the Russian national team Anton Karpukhov also scored a bunch from the serving line. He tallied five aces towards a match high of 24 points in Kuzbass Kemerovo’s away 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18) victory over Gazprom-Ugra Surgut.
Kuzbass’s 8-2 win-loss record places them second in the current standings, below leaders Zenit Kazan (10-1) and above Zenit Saint Petersburg (6-4), Dinamo Moscow (5-0) and Lokomotiv.
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