The Bulgarian national U20 women's team finished the group stage of the Balkan Championship in Mostar, which is also a European qualification, with a 2:3 (19:25, 25:23, 20:25, 25:15, 16:18) loss to Serbia.
Denislav Dimitrov's girls twice equalized the score in the match, being particularly convincing in the fourth set, won 25:15. The Bulgarians managed to take the match to a tie-break, where they started stronger and led 8:3 and 10:6. The Serbian team managed to make a comeback to 14:12, but Bulgaria saved two consecutive match points. The match ended 18:16 for Serbia after 145 minutes of play. Nikol Okoro and Adriana Aleksieva were the top scorers for the Bulgarian team with 15 points each. Ana Miovcic stood out for Serbia with 15 points.
Thus, Bulgaria finished the group stage with three losses and continues its participation in Mostar in the matches for places 5th to 8th.
At the start, the Bulgarian team lost to Turkey 0:3 (23:25, 17:25, 24:26). Our national players had their opportunities in the first and third sets, but the Turkish team was more accurate in the decisive rallies. Katerina Popova was the top scorer for Bulgaria in this match with 10 points.
In their second match, Bulgaria lost to Russia 1:3 (21:25, 25:18, 22:25, 14:25). Denislav Dimitrov's girls played a strong second set and equalized the score, but Russia took the next two sets. Bozhidara Ivanova finished with 18 points, while Nikol Okoro and Katerina Popova added 13 each.
Russia and Belarus are participating in the tournament in Mostar, but their results are not taken into account when determining the team that will win the European quota from the BVA zone.