Men's Super League-Budinvest
7th round. 5 match.
Chernivtsi. Arena "PVLU". January 20.
"Barkom-National Team of Ukraine U-18" - VSC "Law Academy" - 2:3 (15:25, 25:19, 27:25, 22:25, 9:15)
"Barkom-National Team of Ukraine U-18": Yevhenii Boiko (13 points), Dmytro Shcherbynskyi (7), Ihor Shchavinskyi (16), Andrii Cheleniak (9), Ruslan Chervatiuk (5), Danylo Kulynchenko (0), Mykola Dzhul (L) - starting line-up; Ivan Cheleniak (2), Artem Zelinskyi (0), Pavlo Horodiuk (7), Vitalii Kravchenko (0).
VSC "Law Academy": Vitalii Sukhinin (13), Denys Dehtiar (5), Oleksandr Tereshchuk (10), Viktor Shapoval (16), Mykyta Arbuzov (11), Pavlo Plotnik (9), Viacheslav Perekhodniuk (L) - starting line-up; Yevhenii Stepovyi (8), Oleksandr Kovalov (5), Vladyslav Antonenko (1), Artem Troianovskyi (0).
The third game day of the seventh round of Super League-Budinvest was opened by "Barkom-National team of Ukraine U-18" and Kharkiv "Law Academy". This confrontation promised to be intriguing. First, in the second circle, the youngest team in the championship created one of its main sensations, beating the Kharkiv club. Secondly, it was interesting to see how Kharkiv would react to the defeat in their first match of the tour against MHP-Vinnytsia when they conceded in a match in which they were close to victory after two sets.
In today's duel, the national team of Ukraine U-18 could not count on Eduard Shteryk and Denys Dehtyar, who played for the "lawyers". The opponent of the national team had a strong start to the match – 7:2, 10:5. In the second half of the set, the "lawyers" did not relax, constantly led the score, and confidently led the set to their victory - 25:15.
But the second set began with a significant surge of youth 7:3. The head coach of "lawyers" Serhii Kovalenko took a time-out, but even after it, the opponent continued to lead. Among other things, the losing of the Kharkiv team was caused by their uncertain game at the reception. During the set, "Law Academy" conceded 7 points (11:18, 13:20, 15:22), so the final success of the Ukrainian U-18 national team in the set was absolutely deserved.
"National players" felt confident in their own strength, which was reflected on the scoreboard in the opening of the third set - 7:3, 12:6 in their favor. At the same time, the "lawyers" had a starting six on the court. In the second half of the set, the handicap of the U-18 national team reached 7 points (17:10). In response, the "lawyers" after the time-out taken by Serhii Kovalenko took four rallies in a row, after which they evened the score (18:18). It seemed that the initiative had finally passed to the "Law Academy". The team in the final part of the set had three set points at once but did not use them. And in the "more or less" game, the Ukrainian U-18 national team turned out to be stronger - 27:25.
In the fourth set, the Kharkiv players took three consecutive draws, and then doubled their starting advantage - 8:2. Then the Ukrainian U-18 national team managed to significantly strengthen its game. In the second half of the set, they even tied the score (17:17, 18:18), but the "lawyers" were still stronger - 25:22.
The winner of the match was decided in the fifth set. Initially, in its debut, the U-18 national team of Ukraine led the score - 2:0, 5:2. Then Volodymyr Romantsov's team made several mistakes in attacking actions in a row. Even in the first half of the set, the score was equal (6:6), and at the short break the teams went for "+2" in favor of "lawyers".
In the second half of the set, the scoreboard again showed equal numbers (8:8), and then the "lawyers" took four rallies in a row. After that, there was almost no doubt that the "Law Academy" would win the match.
The success of the Kharkiv team allowed them to score 24 points in the championship and stay in fourth place. The Ukrainian U-18 national team scored 10 points, which allowed it to climb to seventh place.
