Fe Garay attacks for Dinamo Krasnodar against the Hisamitsu Springs Kobe block.
Zurich, Switzerland, May 8, 2015 - Dinamo Krasnodar just barely squeezed into the semifinals of the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship, coming from behind to beat Hisamitsu Springs Kobe 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-14, 25-18).
Hisamitsu Springs had come within one set of becoming the first ever Japanese team to make it to the semifinals of a Club World Championship when they won the first set (and needed just one more to eliminate the Russians and qualify themselves). But once Dinamo got their reception sorted with drastic improvement as the match wore on, and the block began to work, it felt like almost plain sailing.
But Dinamo were still playing under par and Serbian opposite Brankica Mihajlovic, the only foreigner on Hisamitsu Springs' roster was creating all sorts of problems for the Russian block and defence. Evetually, Dinamo wore Mihajlovic down and when it counted most, at 21-18 in the fourth, they delivered: Fe Garay scored two consecutive aces, followed by a block by Tatiana Kosheleva on Miyu Nagaoka and a brilliant kill by Yuliya Podskalnaya to bring the match home.
Final ranking in Pool B: 1. Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul; 2. Dinamo Krasnodar; 3. Hisamitsu Springs Kobe.
Semifinal pairings: Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul v Volero Zurich & Rexona-AdeS Rio de Janeiro v Dinamo Krasnodar.
Follow the match, as it happened,
here.