- Dynamo Kazan 3, Uralochka 1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20)
- Kazan advances to play arch-rivals Dynamo Kazan in Russian SuperLeague Women’s Final
- The finals will begin on April 17th and 18th in Kazan. Moscow will host the third game on April 28th in a best-of-5 series.
- Box score
Dynamo Kazan recovered from a first-set loss to beat Uralochka and advance to meet rivals Dynamo Moscow in the 2017 Russian Women’s SuperLeague Final over the next month.
Uralochka, coming off two weeks of rest since their last game, looked fresh and controlled the action in the opening set. In spite of being outplayed, Kazan still kept the game close late – pushing the score as far as 19-20 before Uralochka eventually pulled away.
Coming out in the 2nd, the hosts from Dynamo took control, but a series of unforced errors allowed Uralochka to fight back and take a 16-11 lead. Coming out of the 2nd technical time-out, though, Kazan settled down and eventually evened the game at 1-1.
Dynamo again charged out of the gate, taking an early 5-2 lead, driving the lead eventually to 22-13. With the set seemingly in hand, though, Uralochka got hot and scored the next 6 points of the game.
The 4th and final set was never so separated as the first 3 until late. Uralochka took a small early lead, and otherwise the scoring was a back-and-forth affair until 21-19.
Elitsa Vasileva led Kazan with 27 points in the game on 21 kills (58% efficiency) and 4 blocks.
Xenia Ilchenko led Uralochka with 30 points thanks to 26 kills and a 47% hitting rate. Both teams hit at a very high rate offensively, with Kazan successful on 46% of their swings and Uralochka on 42%. Kazan had 13 kills on 20 swings in the final set to seal the game.
Kazan pushed their way to 24-20, and with the crowd on its feet, an Ekaterina Evdokimova error gave Kazan the win and the right to meet the defending champions Moscow, who swept their semi-final 2-0, for the title. The finals series is a best-of-5.
Kazan won 5 consecutive titles from 2011-2015, in each case, beating Moscow in the final. Moscow broke that streak last season where they won their 4th title, and Kazan finished 4th.
Kazan may have an advantage in the first game beyond just home court advantage. The opening of the final will come 5 days before Moscow takes on the opening round of the Champions League final, where they’ll play hosts Imoco Volley Conegliano in a winner-take-all match for the final.
Uralochka will play Yenissei for 3rd place on April 17th, April 18th, and April 28th, at least, in their own best-of-5 series.
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