Kaliningrad Lokomotiv Women

The Baltic derby against Leningradka sets the tone for Lokomotiv's season more than any table position: the two clubs, drawn from opposite ends of the country's volleyball map, treat the fixture as the one match neither wants to lose, and Kaliningrad's rise has given it real stakes rather than geography alone. Dinamo-Ak Bars, Uralochka-NTMK and Moscow's Dinamo occupy the same tier of rivalry, but none carries the same weight.

The club took shape in 2018, late enough that its first Superliga medals came almost immediately — silver in its debut season and three more before its first title arrived in 2020/21. It has since added the crowns of 2021/22 and 2024/25, plus the Russian Cup in 2025 and the Super Cup of 2019, won against Moscow's Dinamo. A regional trophy, the Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast Cup, followed in 2024.

Red and white, the colours of the Russian Railways brand that gave the club its name, still mark it out as "the railway girls" rather than anything more affectionate — no separate nickname ever took hold. Katerina Lyubushkina has captained the side since 2023; Valeriya Zaytseva has been on the roster since the club's first year in 2018, one of the few links back to the founding squad. The team has also drawn on imported talent, including Belarusian hitter Vera Kostyuchik since 2022 and, this year, Brazilian opposite Kisy Nascimento.

Matches are played at the Yantarny Sports Palace, which holds 6,000. What the club has not managed is a Russian Cup title before 2025 — three separate silver-medal finishes came before that breakthrough, and only one bronze in between.