15th anniversary international volleyball tournament Yeltsin Cup has started in Yekaterinburg. On the first game day, Russian team met with Kazakhstan. Russians won a confident victory with a score 3:0.
In September this year Russian national team is going to participate in European Championship, so coaching staff of our team brought almost optimal lineup to the competition in Yekaterinburg. The audience will not see only Tatiana Kosheleva, Nataliya Goncharova and Ekaterina Pankova, who are having rest before Euro-2017. All the other stars are on the court, and head coach Vladimir Kuzyutkin has a great chance to work out the tactics prior to the main start of 2017.
Two players in starting lineup appeared on their native court of Palace of Sports in the match with Kazakhstan team: Uralochka leader Ksenia Parubets and middle blocker of Dinamo Kazan Irina Zaryazhko.
First two rallies were after the guest team, but soon the score drew to 3:3, and then our team led – 5:4. However, by the first technical time-out Kazakhstan players won 6:8. A little pause had a better effect on the game of Russian team, that made a small pull away of 13:9 and remained it till the second technical time-out – 16:12. Finally, Russians calmly finished the set – 25:17.
The second set has not showed any struggle at all: Russians defeated the opponent with the record score difference for Yeltsin Cup – 25:5. In the beginning of the third set with a score 5:2 for Russian team, both countries showed a superior rally with some effective rescues, but after powerful central attack of Irina Voronkova it was absolutely impossible to lift the ball. To the credit of Kazakhstan national team, after the failure in the second set the team did not give up in despair, and in general the third set was worth seeing. Unfortunately, they had nothing to oppose to Russian team. Julia Kutiukova put the final full stop with her accurate attack – 25:17 in the third set and 3:0 in general score of the match.
It should be noted that a wife of the first Russian President Naina Yeltsin traditionally supported our team. She has flown in Yekaterinburg today and immediately came to the match with Kazakhstan team.
In another match of this day Serbian national team, full with world class stars, confidently won Bulgarian team with a score 3:0 (25:12, 25:15, 25:14). Tomorrow are the next matches at Yeltsin Cup. The first will come Kazakhstan and Bulgaria, and then volleyball fans will see the stunning match between Russian and Turkey teams.