VC Dynamo-Yantar Kaliningrad


Dinamo-Yantar, formerly Dinamo or Dinamo was a Russian women's volleyball club de jure based in Kaliningrad, who played in the Super League, the top Russian league from 2003–04 until 2010–11.

Previous names

The club was established in 2002 as by the Dynamo Sports Club, the FSB and volleyball club Uralochka as an attempt to revive women's volleyball in the Moscow region, where it was originally based. The team was part of the Dynamo Sports Club with players being provided by Uralochka which at the time had up to three teams competing in the Russian leagues and was the dominant Russian force in women's volleyball. Olga Fateeva was the first of these players, who came for the club's first season in 2002–03 at the second division. The club gained promotion by finishing second place in that season.
The club's second season of existence, marked its debut in the Super League, the country's highest league. For that season, young but experienced players such as Irina Tebenikhina, Marina Sheshenina, Elena Sennikova, Yelena Plotnikova, Natalia Vdovina and Yekaterina Gamova came from the Uralochka teams. That made the club very competitive, finishing the Super League as runners-up.
The club had a disappointing season in 2004–05 when it finished sixth place. The following season results were better and the club finish third.
In 2006, following a proposition between the Volleyball Federation of Russia and the Government of Kaliningrad, it was decided to relocate the team to Kaliningrad under the name, but the club continued to play its home matches at Moscow's Dynamo Sports Palace in the 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 seasons. During that time the club's results were also not enough to compete for the titles, with the best finish coming as a 6th place in the 2006–07 season. By the time the club folded in May 2011, after a 12th place finish in the 2010–11 season, it had played a total of two matches in Kaliningrad.
The club also participated in European competitions without success. It played the CEV Cup twice and the Top Teams Cup twice.

Team squad

This was the club's last squad, from season 2010–2011.
NumberPlayerPositionHeight Birth date
1 Nelly AlishevaOutside Hitter2.04
2 Sac HadezhdaMiddle Blocker1.93
3 Anastasia KonovalovaMiddle Blocker1.87
4 Irina SukhovaOpposite1.90
5 Ekaterina OrlovaOutside Hitter1.93
7 Anna LarinaLibero1.68
8 Daria BelokorovkinaSetter1.80
9 Natalia NazarovaOutside Hitter1.88
10 Ksenia DomnidiLibero1.75
11 Olga RyzhovaMiddle Blocker1.85
12 Biljana SimanićOutside Hitter1.86
15 Svetlana SourtsevaSetter1.78