Platform for experiments

The volleyball teams of Belarus and Russia have participated in a tournament in Minsk dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Belarus’ liberation from German Nazi invaders. Both the women’s and men’s teams played two matches each, with our compatriots emerging victorious in all four encounters.

It should be noted that the Russian team did not come to the tournament with their strongest squad. Concurrently with the friendly matches at Minsk’s Sports Palace, the first ever Channel One Volleyball Cup was taking place in Moscow. In the men’s division, teams led by Konstantin Bryansky and Vladimir Alekno faced off, while in the women’s division, teams headed by Nikolai Karpol and Zoran Terzić competed. While the first numbers of the national teams shone bright in Moscow, the squads with experimental lineups set off for Minsk. The Russian men’s national team, under the guidance of the Zenit Kazan head coach, included players not only from Zenit Kazan, but also from Fakel, Yenisei, Zenit St. Petersburg, Kuzbass, Ural, and Dinamo Leningrad Region. The women’s team, led by Yuri Marichev from Proton, brought together the players from Proton as well as from Dinamo-Metar, Dinamo Krasnodar, Leningradka, Uralochka, Tulitsa, and Zarechie-Odintsovo. The fight on the court proved to be captivating. 
The Belarusian women’s team gave the Russian players no chance, defeating them in both matches with a score of 3:0. One of our team’s leaders, Nadzeya Stoliar, shared in an interview with the Belarus 5 TV channel that the volleyball players had missed such an atmosphere, as they had not played at home as part of the national team for a long time. She thanked the fans for their tremendous support and acknowledged that the girls lacked enough competitive practice with the national team, emphasising that a club career and playing for the national team are different things. The head coach of the women’s national team, Siarhei Chasnavitski, summed up the matches with the Russians, “Such victories give confidence to the girls. To secure them, they worked hard during this training camp to prepare well and bring joy to the fans. And they have succeeded. We were a bit more composed, made fewer mistakes, and played well tactically.” 
The composition of our team can be considered optimal. As Siarhei Chasnavitski noted, most of the volleyball players came from the Minsk volleyball club and played together for the national team. The team backbone was preserved; therefore, it did not take long for the girls to recall their combination plays.
In the men’s division of the friendly tournament, the competition was far more intense. The Belarusians secured a decisive victory in the first match, winning 3:0 (25:23, 25:17, 25:20). However, the second match stretched to five sets, ultimately ending in the victory of the hosts with a score of 3:2 (22:25, 25:23, 25:21, 15:25, 15:10). Our national team head coach, Andrei Tolochko, summarised the results of the second match, “We knew it would not be easy against the squad that faced us, and that everything would be decided by just a couple of points for which we battled hard. The Russian national team is represented by very serious and strong players, and both teams showed a very good game at this stage.”  

By Tatiana Pastushenko