Maritsa's team won their tenth Bulgarian Cup, after defeating Levski 3:1 (25:18, 15:25, 25:22, 25:20) in the final at "Levski Sofia" hall. This was also the team's eighth consecutive success in the tournament. The two teams had last met in a final in 2018, when Maritsa also won 3:1. The "Blues" are still record holders in the Cup tournament, having won 27 trophies.
The first set started strong for the champions from Maritsa, who quickly took a 4:0 lead. Levski's team managed to respond, narrowing the gap to 6:7, but the Plovdiv team again took the initiative and constantly maintained a lead of 4-5 points. At 23:16 for Maritsa, Levski scored two consecutive points, but the next two were in the visitors' favor, and the set ended after Radoslav Arsov's team failed to save a ball in defense on an Iva Dudova tip.
The second set was completely different, with Levski taking a 5:0 lead, as the "blues" troubled their opponent with service, excellent defense, and setter Silvia Kuharska often left opposite Mikaela Stoyanova without a block on her attacks. The team's block also worked well. Levski won the second set 25:15 after an attack by German Vanessa Agbortabi went out.
The third part started with an exchange of points, with neither of the two teams managing to take the lead early on. The Plovdiv team first took a 9:6 lead, which forced Arsov to immediately call a timeout and give new instructions to his team. This yielded results and the "blues" equalized at 10:10 after two good attacks by Mikaela Stoyanova. However, the Plovdiv team immediately took a new 4-point lead. Perhaps the decisive moment in the match was an attack by Victoria Koeva from Maritsa against the block, with the ball going out, which gave a 23:20 lead, leading to a timeout for Arsov. Maritsa took a 2:1 lead after the 25th point, which came after a powerful attack by Koeva.
Ahmedjan Ershimsek's team started the fourth set better, and with attacks by Dudova and a good block, the visitors took a 5:2 lead. Levski managed to make some break points and equalized at 10:10. Maritsa quickly regained a two-point advantage with a successful block by Lora Slavcheva. Levski's coach Radoslav Arsov called his first timeout at 17:15 for the opponent, to change the course of the match. Lora Slavcheva made an ace from service for 23:20 for Maritsa. The Plovdiv team reached four match points at 24:20 and converted the very first with a diagonal attack by Agbortabi.
"Our main goal has been achieved. They played well, we did too. This is a final, we can lose one set by 15 points, but the important thing is to win," said Maritsa's Turkish coach Erşimşek after the match.
In a week, the two teams will meet again for the championship in Plovdiv, with Maritsa being the leader in the standings and Levski being the runner-up.