Beroe 2016 started the new season in WINBET Super Volley with a victory, after defeating the elite newcomer Metalurg (Pernik) with 3:0 (25:20, 25:23, 25:20) in the "Ivan Vazov" hall in Stara Zagora.
Miroslav Zhivkov's proteges controlled most of the match, encountering the most serious resistance in the second game, won by a minimal two-point difference. The Pernik team, led by Mario Dimitrov, showed they could be competitive but made more attacking errors.
The most effective player for the winners was the Polish receiver Jakub Rzaka with 12 points, followed by Ivan Latunov with 11. Latunov was chosen as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match. He impressed with 7 successful attacks out of 8 attempts (88%) and 4 points from blocks.
Teodor Kamenovi added 9 points, while Aleksandar Kordev and Nikola Dzhoreta finished with 8 each. Kordev also distinguished himself with two aces.
For Metalurg, the most effective player was Mariyan Nakov with 11 points, and Krasimir Mitev added 9, of which 5 were from blocks. Hamza Hfaed and Konstantin Manolev finished with 8 points each.
Interestingly, the guests surpassed Beroe in both aces (7 vs. 3) and blocks (10 vs. 9). However, the decisive advantage for the Stara Zagora team came from their attack, where they achieved 54% success rate against 42% for their opponent. Beroe also finished with only one attacking error against nine for Metalurg.
Thus, the Stara Zagora team recorded their first three points for the season, while the debutant from Pernik remained without a won game, despite showing good statistics in serving and blocking.