Koroleva, Startseva sign with Russian champs for two more years
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| Evgeniya Startseva and Irina Koroleva together on the block in December’s Russia Cup final |
Startseva, the 31-year-old setter and captain of the new Russian champions, has been with the club since 2012. With the new contract her stay at Dinamo could be extended to a club high of 10 seasons.
She was part of the squad that won both the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club Word Championship and the CEV Champions League in 2014, as well as the CEV Cup in 2017. With this season’s golden double, garnished with an individual recognition as the MVP of the Russia Cup, the playmaker has become a four-time national champion and four-time national cup winner with the team from Kazan.
With the Russian national team, Evgeniya Startseva won gold at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship and the 2015 CEV European Championship and bronze at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball World Cup. She was named best setter of the 2012 Olympic volleyball tournament.
1.96m-tall middle blocker Irina Koroleva finished her fourth season with Dinamo Kazan as the best blocker of the Russian Superliga on an average of 1.14 stuffs per set during the regular season.
The Russian international also registered a 60 per cent success rate in attack, the highest among all players who attempted at least 50 spikes.
In December, she was named best blocker of the national cup finals.
Koroleva contributed to Dinamo’s 2017 CEV Cup victory and the last three Russia Cup wins, but this is the first time she can celebrate as national champion of her country. With Sbornaya, the Russian national team, the 28-year-old middle blocker is a back-to-back European champion in 2013 and 2015 and World Cup bronze medallist in 2019. At the World Cup, she topped the individual ranking for best blocker and was voted on to the Dream Team of the tournament.
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Source: Volley - fivb.org
