Men's Super League-Budinvest
6th round. 7 match.
Chernivtsi. SC "Malenkyi Paryzh". December 11th.
VC "Prometey" - "Epicenter-Podolyany" - 1:3 (25:23, 17:25, 20:25, 19:25).
VC "Prometey": Dmytro Shapoval, Dmytro Yanchuk, Oleksandr Tomilin, Vitalii Shchytkov, Heorhii Klepko, Denys Veletskyi, Oleksandr Boiko (L) - starting line-up; Serhii Riabov, Taras Oleksiuk, Ivan Kryvobok.
"Epicenter-Podolyany": Volodymyr Ostapenko, Yevhenii Kiciliuk, Andrii Rohozhyn, Serhii Yevstratov, Nikolai Penchev, Yurii Tomyn, Horden Brova (L) - starting line-up; Vladyslav Didenko, Volodymyr Sydorenko.
In the central match of the 6th round of the Super League-Budinvest, SC "Prometey" and "Epicenter-Podolyany" met on the court. The confrontation between the leaders of the championship was already the second this week: four days ago, rather unexpectedly, the winner was determined in three sets - "Epicenter" became one. In comparison with the match on Wednesday, the composition of the team from Horodok was replenished with the Bulgarian legionnaire Nikolay Penchev, however, one of the leading players of the Ukrainian national team, Maksym Drozd, could not play today due to an injury. As for "Prometey", Oleksandr Hladenko and Ivan Kryvobok were announced for the match from the trio of previously injured players, but they did not carry the main burden of the fight today.
Both teams had a hard time entering the match, making a lot of mistakes in the debut. At the same time, "Prometey" started better than the opponent - 4:2, 9:6, 12:10. At the beginning of the second half of the starting set, the opponents already had equal chances to win it, and in the final part, "Epicenter" broke ahead by 2 points (20:18). However, the team could not keep this small advantage. With the score tied at 23:23, "Prometey" players Dmytro Shapoval and Oleksandr Tomilin scored effective shots, which brought victory to the Dnipro team - 25:23.
In the debut of the second set, both teams took turns leading the score with the same handicap "+2", and at the equator of the set "Epicenter" managed to pull away from the opponent by 5 points (13:8). The team from Horodok confidently dominated in the future, and so much so that the Dnipro team took only 17 rallies.
The ten-minute break benefited "Prometey". The game again entered an even channel and for quite a long time no one could be favored. The first half of the set ended in a draw (13:13), but in the second, "Epicenter" had a clear advantage. When the handicap of the team from Horodok reached 6 points (23:17, 24:18), its chances to take the lead in the match became maximum. "Prometey" played two set balls, but in the last rally in the set, Dmytro Shapoval failed to serve.
Mariusz Sordyl's team finally felt their game, starting the fourth set very powerfully - 7:3, 9:4. The team from Dnipro managed to reduce their deficit to a minimum (11:12), but their opponent ran ahead by 5 points with another rush (16:11, 21:16). "Epicenter" did not lose its chance, winning in four sets. This success allowed the team to become the sole leader of the championship.
