League Cup.
1/2 of the final. 2 match.
Chernivtsi. PVLU Arena. December 21.
"Epicenter-Podolyany" - VSC "Law Academy" - 3:1 (25:18, 23:25, 25:19, 25:19).
"Epicenter-Podolyany": Volodymyr Ostapenko, Yevhenii Kiciliuk, Andrii Rohozhyn, Serhii Yevstratov, Nikolai Penchev, Yurii Tomyn, Horden Brova (L) - starting line-up; Denys Fomin (L), Volodymyr Cydorenko, Vladyslav Didenko, Ivan Raich.
VSC "Law Academy": Ihor Antoniuk, Vitalii Sukhinin, Illia Polishchuk, Oleksandr Tereshchuk, Viktor Shapoval, Pavlo Plotnik, Viacheslav Perekhodniuk (L) - starting line-up; Denys Dehtiar, Mykyta Arbuzov, Artem Troianovskyi.
In the second semi-final match of the "Budinvest" League Cup, "Epicenter-Podolyany" from the city of Horodok and "Law Academy" from Kharkiv played. In this match, as in the first one at the semi-final stage, an exciting fight was expected. In favor of this was the seasonal confrontation between the rivals, in which the score before today's game was equal - 1:1. However, quite recently, two weeks ago, the team from Horodok took confident revenge in three sets for the defeat in the first round.
"Epicenter" started the match very confidently - 5:2, 14:7. The rival of the leader of the championship could not find the necessary playing rhythm, and as a result of which the team from the Khmelnytsky region confidently defeated the opponent in the opening set - 25:18.
In the second set, the clear dominance of "Epicenter" was not even close. The first half was minimally won by "Law Academy" - 13:12. "Lawyers" also led four times with a difference of one point at the end of the set, and in the last case, they received the right to have a set ball. In the last rally, a reliable block of Serhii Kovalenko's team during a shot from the 2nd zone of the outside hitter of "Epicenter" Yevhenii Kisiliuk brought the "Law Academy" a victory in the set - 25:23.
In the third set, Epicenter initially regained the initiative - 6:3, 8:5, but then allowed the opponent to equalize the score (9:9). The first half of the set remained in favor of "Epicenter" (13:11), after which the players of Mariusz Sordyl increased their handicap to "+5" (19:14, 21:16). This moment largely decided the fate of the set. It was won by "Epicenter" with a score of 25:19.
The team from the Khmelnytskyi region started the fourth set in one breath – 3:0, 12:5. "Epicenter" continued to confidently own the initiative, winning both this set (25:19) and the match in general (3:1). The team from the Khmelnytskyi region became the second finalist of the "Budinvest" League Cup. Tomorrow, in the decisive match of the tournament, they will fight for the title with "Prometey".
