Baku Volley Cup

    "Baku volley" Cup:
    Starts on 2 November.
    Participants:
    Uralochka and Zarechie Odintsovo from Russia
    Galatasaray and Eczachibashi from Turkey
    Rabita,Azerrail,Lokomotiv and Igtisadchi from Azerbaijan    .

    mmm... interesting it looks really nice tournament any channels?

    Tournament will be probably shown on Idman Azerbaycan TV-on Turksat 1c 42E. From 2 till 7 November!


    Frekans: 10966 H 11200 FEC: 5/6 Türksat 3A/2A 42.0°E Uydusu

    Uralochka defeated Lokomotiv Baku.


    "Baku Volley Tournament" started today with the match Lokomotiv-Uralochka in the Baku Sport Palace.
    Uralochka Yekaterinburg started match with attacks by Estes and Kovalchyk and Lokomotiv answered with powerful spikes of captain Yelena Parkhomenko and Julie Rubenstein. First set ended with the majority of Azeri team 25-23.
    Uralochka played great team-game in the following three sets and won them respectively 25-21: 25-12 and 25-20 and ended the match 3-1.
    The best players of the teams were: Belorussian diagonal Oksana Kovalchyk (Uralochka) and American young but very very impressive outside-hitter Julie Rubenstein (Lokomotiv).


    Lokomotiv Baku: Smak,Samoylova,Kovalenko,Parkhomenko,Rubenstein,Kamenova and libero Filipova. (Richards,Mammadyarova)
    Uralochka: Salina,Kovalchyk,Estes,Rusakova,Filipova,Beloborodova and libero Kuznetsova.


    Note: Lokomotiv missed three main players Nancy Metcalf,Nicole Davis and Elena Keldibekova who take part in the World Championship in Japan.
    Uralochka played with the whole team.

    Azerrail crushes Galatasaray.



    In the second match of "Baku Volley Cup" Azerrail defeated Turkish club Galatasaray Medical Park in straight sets.


    First set Azerrail did not give a chance to the Turkish team and finished the set 25:11. The following sets finished 25-18 and 25-21 and Azerail took its first victory in this tournament.
    Azeri young player Polina Rahimova played great match today and was the Best scorer of the court and scored 22 points (14 spikes, 5 serves and 3 blocks) in the three- sets match.


    Starting six:
    Azerrail Baku: Angie Mcginnis, Elisangela Pereria de Souza,Natalya Hanikoglu,Polina Rahimova,Aynur Karimova,Iliyana Petkova and libero Valeriya Korotenko.


    Galatasaray Medical Park: Arzu Gollu,Deniz Hakyemez,Erika Coimbra,Dilara Bilge,Gozde Dal,Vesna Citakovic and libero Merve Dalbeler.

    Note: Azerrail Baku missed American National team captain Jennifer Joines Tamas and another American player whose name has not been called yet.
    Galatasaray Medical Park missed Serbian Ivana Djerisilo who did not come to Baku. Another miss of the Turkish club was Puerto-Rico`s Karina Ocasio who plays for her National team in the World Championship in Japan.

    Azerbaijani champion defeated Russian champion!


    With the match Rabita Baku-Zarechie Odintsovo first day of the "Baku Volley Cup" tournament came to the end.
    Azerbaijani champion Rabita Baku faced the last Russian champion Zarechie Odintsovo at the last match of the first day.
    Rabita Baku which misses the players like Kimberly Glass,Mirela Delic,Natasa Krsmanovic and libero Silvija Popovic played great match against very strong Russian team which played with the main squad and missed just a German player Margarethe Kozuch who is also one of the main key players of the team.
    Both the teams started match scoring points in a row. Natalya Mammadova and Olga Ativi played as outside hitters,the middle-blockers were Serbian experienced Mira Golubovic and Lidiya Dyachenko,setter was Irina Zhukova who aslo played for Zarechie Odintsovo in the past,and her opposite was Sanja Starovic.
    Olga Ativi and Mira Golubovic led the team with their powerful spikes and Mammadova played very effectively at reception as in the first set also in the following sets.
    Rabita Baku won the first two sets 25-20: 25-21 and lost the third one 25-27 playing very comfortable and thinking that they had won the whole match. But Zarechie Odintsovo played very good as a team,and showed great performance with the players like Walewska Moreira de Oliveira,Kseniya Naumova,Anna Makarova and Anastasiya Markova. Another great performance came from the guests` libero Vinogradova who played amazingly the all match long.
    Rabita Baku won the last set with strong attacks of the captain Mammadova and blocks of Mira Golubovic -25:21 and 3-1 in the sets.
    So,Rabita,Azerrail and Uralochka finished the first day with important wins.


    Rabita Baku: Zhukova (Nenova),Starovic,Mammadova,Ativi, (Kulikova),Golubovic,Dyachenko and libero Doganjic.


    Zarechie-Odintsovo: Zhadan (Pankova),Makarova,Naumova,Markova,Lisovskaya (Bogacheva),Walewska and libero Vinogradova.


    Tomorrow`s match schedule:


    3 November
    15:00. “Rabita” - “Uralochka”
    17:00. “Azerrail” - “Zarechie-Odintsovo”
    19:00. “Galatasaray” - “Lokomotiv”


    All the matches will be shown LIVE by "Idman Azerbaycan" TV.

    Quote from Bartek

    Who is Kovalenko in Lokomotiv Baku? What Team She here came from?


    She is Azerbaijan NT middle blocker, last year also played in Lokomotiv.
    Before she played in Azerrail and was chosen best blocker in CL ( I dont remember year exactly, at that time she was known as Poznyak)

    Azerrail Baku crushed Zarechie Odinstovo with its young star Rahimova!!!



    Azerrail Baku faced Russian Champions Zarechie Odintsovo in the first match of the second day of the "Baku Volley Cup".
    In the first set Zarechie-Odintsovo started with powerful attacks by Markova and Makarova and Azerrail answered with Polina Rahimova`s strong attacks. At the end of the set Russian champions were leading 24-20 but Azerrail did great come-back with young Azeri Star Polina Rahimova`s blocks and attacks and won the first set 27-25
    The second set started with the same scene-Polina Rahimova crushed opponents` defence with her great spikes and Valeriya Korotenko did some amazing defenses which were applauded by the spectators. Setter Angie McGinnis made her team to play quick game. 25-17 and Azerrail led 2-0.
    The third set also ended with advantage of Azerrail Baku 27-25 and Azeri team closed the match 3-0.
    Polina Rahimova once again was the Best Scorer and MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the match.
    So,one more Azeri club crushed Russian champions.

    Rabita Baku lost to Uralochka in a dramatic match.




    Azerbaijani team Rabita Baku played against Russian Uralochka Yekaterinburg on the second day of "Baku Volley Cup".
    In the first set Rabita lost 30-28, but won the following sets 25-23: 25-16 . After that Uralochka equaled the score with the points of Oksana Kovalchyk 25-19. In the final set, Rabita was 12-8 ahead but lost the tie-break 16-18 and the match 2-3.
    Natalya Mammadova was the Best Scorer of the team. In Russian team Oksana Kovalchyk was the best.

    Lokomtiv outclassed Galatasaray Medical Park in three sets.



    Last year`s Finalist Lokomotiv Baku faced Turkish Galatasaray Medical Park in the third match of the second day of "Baku Volley Cup" .
    Lokomotiv Baku started playing very fast with attacks of central player Kseniya Kovalenko and American outside-hitter Kristin Richards powerful spikes. The first set ended 25-20.
    In the second set Lokomotiv played not good at reception and was very close to lose the set,but after 19-23 Lokomotiv scored 6 points in a row at the final step of the set and took it to 2-0 in match.
    The third with a brillance performance of Yelena Parkhomenko and Julie Rubenstein Lokomotiv easily closed the set 25- 11 and won the match 3-0.
    On Azeri side Kseniya Kovalenko was the best. Vesna Citakovic was the best in Turkish team.