Straight but very hard victory...

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 16, 2011. Lokomotiv BAKU won the Azerbaijani derby against Igtisadchi played this afternoon at the “Sarhadchi Sports Olympic Centre” for the semifinals of the 2011 GM Capital Challenge Cup. Lokomotiv edged out their archrivals in straight sets (25-21, 25-20, 28-26) and next Sunday will go for the return game in a very favorable position to claim a ticket for the final.
Players, officials and fans joined a minute of silence that was observed before the start of the game in memory of the many victims caused by the terrific earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan this past Friday, March 11.
Right after that, Lokomotiv and Igtisadchi played with all their hearts as they desperately wanted to go for the win. Lokomotiv went up 8:4 by the first mandatory stop and was able to maintain that margin (16:13); although Igtisadchi went for some substitutions and their coach, Belgian Jan de Brandt, stopped the game to re-organize their play, it did not pay back as Lokomotiv pocketed the opening set 25-21.
Igtisadchi started well (3:0) in the second set and at 5:1, Lokomotiv mentor Dragutin Baltic asked his first time-out. However, Igtisadchi could stretch their lead (8:2) before Lokomotiv scored the next three consecutive points. Well supported by their fans, the girls of Lokomotiv clawed back to tie at 10 and then cruised past by the second technical break (14:16). As Lokomotiv was setting the pace quite comfortably (20:15), Igtisadchi used their second time-out but several mistakes in attack paved the way for the final 25-20 and the 2:0 for Lokomotiv.
Igtisadchi tried to change their play in set 3 and the score stayed pretty tight, with many ties up to 20:20. At 22 all, Baltic replaced US American Nancy Jean Metcalf with Slovak Monika Smak before Kristin Richards was also substituted by Bulgarian Mariya Filipova. The score went up to 26:26 and as Croatian Ivana Milos got injured in the next rally, Lokomotiv got a match ball that was immediately silvered for the final 3:0.