The second competitive week in the Volleyball Nations League for our women's national team is now in the past. In this tournament, our squad was reinforced by new volleyball players who more than successfully repaid the opportunity to play. In the American city of Arlington, our girls achieved their first success in this year's competition, defeating the South Korean team 3:2. In the other three matches, our team showed very valuable play, but most of all, tactical errors weighed heavily, preventing us from recording a second victory within a week. Our "Lionesses" successively lost to the hosts and current Olympic champions - USA with 0:3, the 2022 World Champions Serbia with 1:3, as well as to the tough German team also with 1:3 sets.

In the following lines, we will take you back to the most interesting moments from these four matches that our girls played in Arlington, USA:

1. Bulgaria – South Korea 3:2 (25:23, 20:25, 24:26, 25:21, 15:13)

The first match on American soil realistically pitted two of the teams that in recent years have been absolute outsiders in the League. Since there are no relegated teams in this year's tournament, and the Koreans had the status of a "guaranteed team," the match between these rivals was far more attractive than their previous encounters. The match went through many twists and turns - something typical for women's volleyball, but fortunately, the victory ultimately landed in our favor. We led 1:0, then we fell behind at 1:2, but in the end, we managed to snatch the victory after 15:13 in the tie-break. Led by the seemingly surprising (to some fans) leader in the person of the young and talented Merelin Nikolova - a player in South Korea from autumn - our "Lionesses" broke the spirited Korean team, allowing us to deservedly celebrate our first success in the League this season. The deserved praise goes mainly to Merelin Nikolova - Bulgaria's blonde opposite hitter, who scored a fantastic 30 points in this match.

2. Bulgaria – USA 0:3 (17:25, 22:25, 22:25)

The second match for our women's national volleyball team was against the hosts from the USA, who will be defending their Olympic title from Tokyo this summer. Traditionally in recent years, our girls play strongly and concentrated against the Americans, as matches against the best are usually a huge stimulus for the opponent to show their best. Our "Lionesses" again stayed close to their opponent in the score, with the exception of the first set, which ended with an 8-point difference. In the other 2, our girls played equally at times against their opponents, but unfortunately failed to take at least one set. The Americans, for their part, controlled the rhythm of the game extremely calmly throughout, to celebrate a deserved victory in front of their home crowd. The volleyball players of the legendary former player and current coach Karch Kiraly once again showed that they are striving for the top in every tournament they participate in. Our head coach Lorenzo Micelli, in turn, rotated the squad again to give more players a chance to experience the class of the American team. The positive aspect after our loss to the USA is the fact that our girls never stopped trying to catch up with the otherwise far-ahead opponent.

3. Bulgaria – Serbia 1:3 (25:18, 21:25, 17:25, 16:25)

Our third opponent in Arlington was the team of Serbia. Our western neighbors have the status of current world champions from the World Cup 2 years ago, which inevitably gives them additional confidence. The "Plavi" team has always defeated us in recent years, and the hope was that the end of this bad streak for Bulgaria would be now. Our "Lionesses" played a great first set, leaving the Serbians with only 18 points. This gave an impetus to the Bulgarians in the second set, which started excellently, but the key moment occurred in the middle of the set, when our coach Lorenzo Micelli failed to react in time with technical timeouts and substitutions, allowing the experienced and classy opponent to take full advantage, leveling the sets at 1:1. After losing the initiative up to that point in the match, Serbia took control of the game, leaving no chances for our girls in the third and fourth sets, winning them with 17 and 16 points respectively. Unfortunately, once again tactical errors cost us a possibly deserved second success in a competitive tournament, and that against an exceptionally classy opponent like the Serbian team.

4. Bulgaria – Germany 1:3 (19:25, 25:21, 21:25, 11:25)

Our last opponent on American soil was the tough, but by no means pretentious, German team. A relatively weak - compared to the play shown in this tournament - first set for our team, in which we lost after 19:25. The second set passed successfully under our control, to level the sets after 25:21. The third set again started well for our "Lionesses", but the Germans stayed close to us, and in the end, we conceded a turnaround in the set and the match - 2:1 for the "Bundesteam". The fourth set was a real nightmare for our team - our players were unable to react in any way to the initial pressure of the Germans on serve, which broke our reception. Until the end of the set, our volleyball players could not even get close to the opponent, finishing the set, the match, and the tournament in Arlington in the most catastrophic way possible - 11:25 and a 1:3 set loss to Germany. After this match, Bulgaria continues to occupy, to our great regret, the last, 16th place in the standings of the Women's Volleyball Nations League with only 2 points won.

The conclusions after the competitive tournament in Arlington, USA, are as follows:

Our team cleared up some of the inaccuracies shown in the first tournament on Turkish soil, played in Antalya, but at the same time continues to demonstrate large fluctuations in its play in individual sets. The lack of correct substitutions at the right moments is clearly visible in the heat of the matches, which is the most crucial aspect.
Head coach Lorenzo Micelli has a rich arsenal of outside hitters, with particularly noticeable competition in the opposite position - the left-handers Mikaela Stoyanova and Merelin Nikolova, as well as Iva Dudova. Mika had a great season with her team Levski, and the blonde offensive specialist Mary crushed the competition last month in the Korean League draft. The third young and talented opposite, who can also be used as a receiver, is the youngest of the three - the promising Iva Dudova, who will again defend the colors of her home "Maritsa". Along with captain Mira Paskova and the other more experienced players in the team, Petya Barakova and Zhana Todorova, our team has potential that is waiting to be developed by the coaching staff, led, at least for now, by the Italian specialist Lorenzo Micelli.

The team still has enough time to prepare for its remaining League matches, as well as for the European Championship in the autumn, but the coaching staff needs to work more seriously on tactics and discipline to see a consistent, without serious fluctuations, game from the women's national team, which will bring us success in the future.

For the "Lionesses", the third and final tournament of the Nations League this year will be in Hong Kong. Our opponents there will be the world power China as hosts, the tricky team of Thailand, another of the regular favorites Brazil, as well as the always likable and classy team of the Dominican Republic. The matches will be on June 11 at 3:30 PM, June 13, June 14, and June 15 - all at 8:30 AM. The matches of the Bulgarian team will again be broadcast live on Max Sport channels.