The captain of the Bulgarian national team, Alex Grozdanov, started the new season in the Polish PlusLiga in excellent fashion. The middle blocker was chosen as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in Bogdanka LUK (Lublin)'s 3:0 (25:23, 25:22, 25:21) away victory over ZAKSA (Kędzierzyn-Koźle) in the first round of the championship.
Grozdanov finished with 11 points, impressing most notably with his blocking. The Bulgarian recorded 5 successful blocks and converted 6 out of 7 attacks, which means an 86% success rate. He had a key contribution to the visitors' superiority at the net, where Bogdanka won the blocking ratio 9:3.
The Polish vice-champions achieved success without their big star Wilfredo Leon. The MVP of the last European Championship remained on the bench throughout the match, and head coach Stefan Antiga gave an opportunity to the new Japanese signing Ran Takahashi.
The debut of the Japanese international proved to be more than successful. Takahashi was the top scorer in the match with 15 points, including 3 aces, while Mikołaj Sawicki added 13.
In the first set, the visitors quickly built a four-point lead, but ZAKSA gradually found their rhythm and equalized at 18:18. Bogdanka's better performance in the decisive rallies proved crucial, and an error by setter Marcin Krawiecki ended the set at 25:23.
The second set also offered a contested game. The hosts even took an 11:10 lead after an ace by Toma Pujol, but at 18:16, Bogdanka again took the initiative. Sawicki and Mateusz Malinowski were the main scorers for the visitors, who closed the set at 25:22.
Unlike the previous two sets, the third began with a clear superiority from the team from Lublin. Grozdanov was among the main protagonists in this period, helping with a successful block and attack for an early breakaway to 6:1. ZAKSA managed to reduce their deficit to 18:21, but the visitors did not allow a comeback and finished the match at 25:21.
The match also had an interesting moment concerning German international Jan Zimmermann. ZAKSA's new setter, who surprisingly left Italian Monza after only three training sessions, watched the match from the first row beside the court. The reason he did not debut was that the club had not managed to register him in time.
This left the hosts with only one available setter – Marcin Krawiecki, after Quinn Isaacson's injury. Head coach Andrea Giani also could not count on Bartosz Zych due to health problems.
For ZAKSA, the top scorer was Rafał Szymura with 14 points, followed by Remigiusz Kapica with 9.
Bogdanka finished the match with a 55% attack efficiency against 48% for the hosts. Although ZAKSA had an advantage in aces with 8:5, the vice-champions controlled the game at the net and deservedly reached a clean victory.
For Grozdanov, the individual award in the very first round is a strong start to the new season, in which Bogdanka will pursue its first championship title in its history.

photo:tauronliga.pl