Men's Super League-Budinvest
7th round. 4 match.
Chernivtsi. "PVLU" Arena. January 19.
VC "Zhytichi-Polissya" - "Epicenter-Podolyany" - 1:3 (15:25, 26:24, 18:25, 17:25).
VC "Zhytichi-Polyssya": Denys Hubenko (11 points), Vitalii Bondar (14), Mykola Kuranov (2), Mykola Rudnytskyi (12), Mykyta Luban (10), Andrii Orobko (7), Anatolii Khvasta (L) - starting line-up; Bohdan Onipko (0), Oleksandr Haidarenko (0).
"Epicenter-Podolyany": Ivan Raich (21), Volodymyr Ostapenko (9), Oleksandr Koval (4), Serhii Yevstratov (2), Nikolai Penchev (13), Volodymyr Sydorenko (14), Horden Brova (L) - starting line-up; Denys Fomin (0), Vladyslav Didenko (1), Yurii Tomyn (3).
In the second match of today's game day, "Zhytychi-Polissya" from Zhytomyr and "Epicenter-Podolyany" from the city of Horodok faced each other. Before this match, the teams were separated by 17 points in the standings. In the matches of the first two rounds of the championship, its leader and owner of the League Cup 2022 won with the same score of 3:0. Therefore, the status of the favorite of this confrontation rightfully belonged to "Epicenter".
However, today the head coach of the team Mariusz Sordyl could not count on the injured Andrii Rohozhin, Yevhenii Kisiluk, Maksym Drozd, and Oleksandr Nalozhnyi, but any Super League club could envy the depth of the "Epicenter" squad this season.
This match was an additional confirmation of this. "Epicenter" quickly established a starting advantage - 7:4, 13:9. In the second half of the set, the team from Horodok doubled its handicap (18:10), after which the fate of the set was practically decided. It ended with a two-digit advantage of the club from the Khmelnytsky region - 25:15.
In the second set, "Epicenter" also, like in the previous one, led in the score 7:4, but this time lost two consecutive rallies to the opponent. Even in the first half of the set, the Zhytomyr players kept their deficit to minimum several times and even managed to take the lead in the same part of the game (13:12). In the second half, Epicenter regained the lead with a 4:0 run, but this moment was not a turning point. Serhii Tereykovsky's team finally found the necessary balance between attack and defense (they had a great block in this set). In the final part of the set, they deservedly earned the right to two set points at once. "Zhytichi-Polissya" did not use these two attempts to win the set, but did it in the game on "more or less" - 26:24.
After a ten-minute break, the team from the Khmelnytskyi region regained the initiative - 10:6, 12:7, 14:8. In this part of the game, Ivan Raich, the Croatian legionnaire of "Epicenter", immediately scored 5 points (21 points in the match). To the credit of the team from Zhytomyr, they kept the intrigue in this set, making their lag minimal - 16:17. At that moment, Mariusz Sordyl took a time-out, which benefited his players. The 8:2 surge of "Epicenter" decided the fate of the set in their favor.
The club from Horodok confidently started the fourth set - 9:4, 13:6. In the second half of the set, the team of Mariusz Sordyl continued to fully control the game and confidently brought it to their victory. Today's success allowed "Epicenter" to retain the first line in the tournament table with 42 points.
