Kuchine Lube Civitanova triumphed with the preparatory tournament "Yezi Volley Cup", after defeating Allianz Milan in the final with a 3:1 game (25:23, 29:31, 25:21, 25:14).
The match turned into a direct duel between Bulgarian nationals, who played a key role for their teams. The big star of the final was the 19-year-old Lube setter Simeon Nikolov, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Simeon led Civitanova's game with impressive maturity, finishing with 5 points, including an ace, making excellent service runs and even scoring a spectacular dunk. It was his opening shot in the third game that proved to be the turning point and broke Milan's resistance.
His older brother Alexander Nikolov also recorded a strong performance, and was among the leading scorers for Lube with 16 points.
Bulgarian receiver Georgi Tatarov started for Allianz Milan as a starter, scoring 5 points. The most productive player for Milan was the diagonal Dermo with 19 points.