Russian 2010 world champs on the move

Krasnodar, Russia, August 5, 2020 – Three names from Russia’s gold medal winning 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship squad highlight recent news from the transfer market in the women’s Superliga.

1.80m-tall setter Vera Vetrova is set to return to professional volleyball after a break of two seasons. The 2010 world champ last played for Dinamo Moscow winning the national title in 2018. She has signed with Dinamo Krasnodar for the 2020-2021 season. A 2016 Olympian, Vetrova is also a four-time national champion, three-time national cup winner and one-time national Super Cup laureate.

At Dinamo Krasnodar, Vetrova will be in the company of her 2010 Sbornaya teammate Maria Perepelkina. The middle blocker returns to her former club after spending the last season with Leningradka Saint Petersburg. An experienced athlete, the 36-year-old is a two-time national cup winner and has also taken part in the Olympics, but at London 2012.

Dinamo Krasnodar have announced one more important homecoming, that of 25-year-old opposite Bogumila Biarda. The former Russian junior international played for Tulitsa Tula last season. 

Krasnodar have also extended their contract with a former member of the Russian national team, 35-year-old libero Ekaterina Tretyakova, who will be in her fifth consecutive season with the club.

The third 2010 world champ on the move this summer is 1.74m-tall libero Svetlana Kryuchkova. The 35-year-old star returns to Leningradka Saint Petersburg after spending a season with Yenisei Krasnoyarsk. 

Kryuchkova is actually a two-time world champion, having triumphed with the title in both 2006 and 2010. She also topped the podium at the 2013 CEV European Championship, took part in the London 2012 Olympics, medalled twice in the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and claimed silver at the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Club World Championship (with the team of Dinamo Krasnodar).

Meanwhile, two former Russian internationals, who were both European champions in 2013, 31-year-old outside hitter Victoriia Rusakova (formerly known as Chaplina) and 30-year-old opposite Daria Stolyarova, have also joined the ranks of Leningradka, arriving from Dinamo Moscow. Belarusian international outside Katsiaryna Sakolchyk (27) has transferred to the Saint Petersburg club from Minchanka Minsk. Leningradka have also announced the departure of former Russian national team member, 32-year-old outside Anastasia Markova.

• 22-year-old outside hitter and member of the Russian national team Maria Vorobyeva, silver medallist of the 2017 FIVB U20 World Championship, and former junior Russian international middle blocker Anna Melnikova (24), 2014 club world champion with Dinamo Kazan, both coming in from Zarechie Odintsovo, are new additions to the roster of 2020 Superliga runners-up Lokomotiv Kaliningrad.

• A current Russian international, 23-year-old libero Kristina Kurnosova, and a former Russian junior international, 22-year-old middle Elizaveta Kotova, silver medallist of the 2017 FIVB U20 World Championship, have left Zarechie Odintsovo in the direction of 2020 bronze medallists Uralochka-NTMK Ekaterinburg. One more former junior international, 23-year-old setter Alena Kondrashova (until recently known by her maiden name Kirichenko), has joined the team of Uralochka, arriving from Ufimochka-UGNTU Ufa.

• Russian national team member Ekaterina Orlova, 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix silver medallist, 2017 FIVB Club World Championship bronze medallist (with Switzerland’s Volero Zurich) and 2015 European champion, has joined Dinamo Moscow. The 32-year-old middle blocker has transferred from Lokomotiv Kaliningrad. Ex-member of the Sbornaya, 27-year-old middle Ekaterina Enina, will also play for Dinamo after defending the colours of Uralochka-NTMK Ekaterinburg for the past three seasons.

• The squad of Proton Saratov has been joined by 21-year-old Russian international outside hitter Victoriia Russu, silver medallist of the 2017 FIVB U20 World Championship, coming in from Zarechie Odintsovo.

• 28-year-old opposite Natalia Dumcheva and 16-year-old middle blocker Inna Kruk, former and current Russian junior national team members, respectively, will compete for Zarechie Odintsovo. Dumcheva arrives from Minchanka Minsk, while Kruk last played for the team of Podmoskovie Moscow Oblast in the Junior League.

• Former Russian international, 30-year-old outside Ksenia Bondar, 2009 FIVB World Grand Prix silver medallist and 2007 FIVB Youth World Championship bronze medallist, has transferred from Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the only foreign club in the Superliga, Minchanka Minsk. She will play alongside Belarusian national team’s 35-year-old middle Hanna Kalinouskaya, who returns to Minchanka from Top Speed Taipei. Minchanka have also announced the contract extension of 24-year-old setter Anastasiya Lapato and the departures of 40-year-old striker Aksana Kavalchuk (to Pribuzhie Brest) and 30-year-old middle Darya Valadzko (to Zhemchuzhina Polessia), all Belarusian internationals.

• 19-year-old outside Valeriya Shevchuk, bronze medallist of both the 2019 FIVB U20 World Championship and the 2017 FIVB U18 World Championship, who finished the last season on the squad of Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, has now been loaned out by her club Lokomotiv Kaliningrad to Dinamo-Metar Chelyabinsk for the upcoming season. 24-year-old opposite Ekaterina Shkurikhina, former Russian junior international, coming from Severyanka Cherepovets, and 17-year-old middle Anna Bagriantseva, current member of the U19 national team, moving up from Dinamo-Metar’s junior squad, will also play for the senior team of the Chelyabinsk club.

• Yenisei Krasnoyarsk have signed 19-year-old Russian international middle blocker Yulia Brovkina on loan from Lokomotiv Kaliningrad. Brovkina is a bronze medallist of the 2019 FIVB Volleyball World Cup and of the 2019 FIVB U20 World Championship.  26-year-old middle Evgenia Snegireva, former youth national team member, transfers to Yenisei from the second-division team of Dinamo-UOR Kazan.

• Two former members of Russia’s junior national team have joined the squad of Superliga newcomers Lipetsk. The agreement, under which 30-year-old middle blocker Maria Vonogova was loaned by Uralochka-NTMK Ekaterinburg to Lipetsk in late January, has been extended over the upcoming season. 19-year-old outside Mariia Bogovskaia, gold medallist of the 2017 CEV U18 European Championship, also arrives at Lipetsk, on loan from Dinamo Krasnodar.

• 2016 Olympian Daria Malygina is one of the new additions to the roster of the other Superliga newcomer, Tulitsa Tula. The 26-year-old Russian international opposite has transferred to Tulitsa from Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. So has 24-year-old outside and libero Olga Frolova, former member of Russia’s junior and youth national teams, who registered 60% good reception last Superliga season, the best rate among all players with at least 50 processed opponent serves. Tula will also rely on the services of former junior internationals – middle blocker Iana Manziuk (28), coming in from Dinamo Moscow, and setter Elena Boyarkina (32), silver medallist of the 2005 Youth U18 World Championship, coming in from Proton Saratov – as well as of 32-year-old former Ukrainian international middle blocker Yuliia Pervukhina, arriving from Severyanka Cherepovets.

• 17-year-old middle blocker Elizaveta Kochurina, member of the Russian junior national team and 2018 U17 European champion, has transferred from Dinamo Kazan to Superliga rookies Sparta Nizhny Novgorod. The club has also announced the contract extensions with former junior internationals – 24-year-old middle Yulia Sinitskaya and 22-year-old libero Anastasiia Stankevichute, 2016 U19 European champion – as well as the departure of former junior international outside Angelina Emelina (22).