Earvin Ngapeth And Matt Anderson Share The Court For The First Time As Zenit Kazan Beats Kemerovo 3-1

Russian Super League

• Round 1; Round 2

Russia’s top dogs came out with wins this weekend as Zenit St. Petesburg, Belgorod, Zenit Kazan, and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk gave their opponents no chances at success. However, it’s the brave Fakel Novy Urengoy team who is leading the standings at this early stage of the season. Below, you’ll find all of the round’s information

Results

Best Performers of the Round

• Yaroslavich’s Vyacheslav Tarasov led all of the round’s scorers with 24 points
• Ural’s Igor Filipov had an exceptional 6 blocks game
• Belogorie’s Nemanja Petrich led the round with 6 aces
• Lokomotiv Novosibirk hit for 59% as a team

Story-lines to watch

• Earvin Ngapeth made his debut for Zenit Kazan coming out of the bench for 8 points on 7/13 hitting and 1 ace. He delivered positively on 70% of his passes. You can check out his first few points with the team in the video below.
• Ngapeth’s teammate Matt Anderson scored 18 points in his season debut. He hit 46% and had 2 blocks.
• Gerogy Grozer continued to impress for Zenit St. Petesburg with 22 points, including 5 blocks. He has so far played like an MVP candidate.
• Recent world champion setter Fabian Drzyzga moved to 3-0 with Lokomotiv Novosibirsk. Needless to say, his move to Russia has been a success so far.
• Torch’s Erik Shoji delivered positively on 79% of his passes

Best Quotes

Zenit Kazan‘s game against Kemerovo gave us the most interesting quotes of the round. At one side, we had the best team in the world trying to adjust to its new reality without the best player of the world, Wilfredo Leon. On the other, an honest team, that knows just dangerous Zenit Kazan can be:

“Victories this year bring more joy. These are the laws of sport. When over the years in general everything is easy, things will start to get harder. I think this year there will be intrigue in every match, there will be a struggle. And this is good. Today I am glad to win over Kuzbass, glad that young guys Nikita Alekseev and Laurent Alekno really helped the team. As  for Ngapeth, you have seen that he is a phenomenon on the back court. His offense is just a bonus.” – Zenit Kazan‘s head coach Vladimir Alekno

 “The most important conclusion of this match: we won, and that’s good. Not everything is going smoothly, not everything is in optimal shape at the beginning of the season, so it is important to win. But the quality our game now leaves much to be desired. We need to work a lot.” – Zenit Kazan‘s captain Maxim Mikhailov

“Zenit is Zenit even without Leon.” – Kemerova’s captain Anton Karpukhov

Standings

Ngapeth’s Debut