Dinamo Moscow celebrated victorious in the Pool D opener on Tuesday. At the Burhan Felek in Istanbul, they snatched a 3-2 (25-23, 13-25, 27-29, 25-23, 17-15) win over Russian compatriots Lokomotiv Kaliningrad Region.

Sadly, just before the match, Lokomotiv’s Dutch setter Laura Dejkema made a social media announcement of the passing away of her mother, which probably explains her absence from the team’s roster in Istanbul.

The first half of the first set offered a tight and even battle until a couple of attacking errors by Lokomotiv gave Dinamo a 16-13 advantage. With Natalia Pereira on fire at the net, the Muscovites kept the pressure on. They celebrated their first set point a bit prematurely, since a successful block touch challenge by the opponents reversed the ref’s decision to re-set the score at 23-21. Two consecutive spikes by Margarita Kurilo wiped the gap out, but Loko’s serving error finally brought Dinamo to first set point, which Natalia converted to a 25-23 close with an ace.

In a completely one-sided second set, Lokomotiv stormed the court with a 4-0 run and never looked back. Some great blocking by Irina Voronkova helped her team dominate the set. Loko’s last attack was initially called out, but they successfully challenged it to finish it off at 25-13.

Riding the momentum, the girls from Kaliningrad took control of the scoreboard from the very start of the third set. Dinamo kept up the fight to stay close behind, but never quite managed to catch up, or at least not before Lokomotiv reached set point 24-22. With their backs against the wall, Dinamo scored three in a row to stay alive. The blockers on both sides of the net excelled in the overtime until Loko finally put an end to it all with a Voronkova hit for 29-27.

With a couple of changes in the line-up, Dinamo had the upper hand for pretty much the entire fourth set. While coach Andrei Voronkov was trying to change the course of the match with substitutions on Loko’s side of the net, Natalia Pereira and Nataliya Goncharova were leading the scorers for Dinamo. With setter Tatiana Romanova acing twice in a row, the gap went as wide as seven points at 20-13. Lokomotiv fought back to narrow it down to a point, but Pereira’s powerful hit delivered the 25-23 win and prompted a fifth set.

Four consecutive points gave Lokomotiv an early 4-1 lead in the tie-breaker, but shortly after, Dinamo responded with four in a row of their own to regain the lead at 7-6. A fierce point-for-point battle unfolded to push it into overtime until a wide attack by Voronkova stopped the clocks at 17-15 Dinamo’s way.

Russian standout Nataliya Goncharova and Brazilian star Natalia Pereira shared the top scorer honours of with 25 points apiece for the winners. The latter was named MVP of the match. Margarita Kurilo was Lokomotiv’s most prolific scorer on 24 points.