Maritsa's team won its tenth Bulgarian Cup, after defeating Levski 3:1 (25:18, 15:25, 25:22, 25:20) in the final at the "Levski Sofia" hall. This was the team's eighth consecutive success in the tournament. The two teams had last met in the final in 2018, when Maritsa again won 3:1. "The Blues" are still record holders in the Cup tournament, having won 27 trophies, BTA reports.
The first game started strongly for the champions from Maritsa, who quickly took a 4:0 lead. Levski's team managed to respond by reducing the deficit to 6:7, but the Plovdiv team took the initiative again and constantly maintained a 4-5 point lead. At 23:16 for Maritsa, Levski scored two consecutive points, but the next two were in the guests' possession, with the half ending after Radoslav Arsov's team failed to save a ball in defense when Iva Dudova served.
The second game was completely different. Levski led 5:0 after the "blues" made it difficult for their opponent with serve, excellent defense, and the setter Silvia Kuharska often left the diagonal Mikaela Stoyanova unblocked in her attacks. The team's blockade also worked well. Levski won the second game 25:15 after an attack by the German Vanessa Agbortabi in the out.
The third half began with an exchange of points, with neither team managing to take the lead at the beginning. Plovdiv's team took the lead first with 9:6, which forced Arsov to immediately take a timeout and give new instructions to his team. This paid off and the "blues" tied at 10:10 after two good attacks by Mikaela Stoyanova. However, Plovdiv's team immediately took a new lead of 4 points. Perhaps the decisive moment in the match was an attack by Viktoria Koeva from Maritsa on a block, as the ball went out and this gave a lead of 23:20, which led to a timeout for Arsov. Maritsa led 2:1 after the 25th point, which came after a powerful attack by Koeva.
Ahmetcan Ershimshek's team started the fourth game better, as with attacks by Dudova and a good block the guests led 5:2. Levski managed to make some break points and tied at 10:10. Maritsa quickly regained the lead of two points with a successful block by Lora Slavcheva. Levski coach Radoslav Arsov called for his first timeout at 17:15 for the opponent to change the course of the match. Lora Slavcheva made an ace from serve at 23:20 for Maritsa. Plovdiv's team reached four match points at 24:20 and realized the first one with a diagonal attack by Agbortabi.