Maritsa (Plovdiv)'s European campaign in the Women's Champions League continued with another tough test in Germany. The Bulgarian champion lost 0-3 (20:25, 21:25, 17:25) away to Palmberg (Schwerin) in a Group E match, played in front of over 1500 spectators in a hall in Schwerin. An interesting fact is that two coaches who will work together with the Dutch national team faced each other.

This was the third loss for Ahmetcan Erşimshek's girls in the tournament, with the Plovdiv team remaining in third place in the temporary standings with 1 win, 3 losses, and 4 points. Nevertheless, Maritsa retains realistic chances to continue in the CEV Cup tournament. In the next round, the Bulgarian champion hosts the group leader – Polish Developres (Rzeszów), on January 27 at 18:30 in the Kolodruma Hall.

The hosts exerted serious pressure from the start with powerful serves and quickly took a 12:4 lead in the first set. Maritsa stabilized their game and reduced the deficit to 16:19, but Palmberg maintained their lead and closed the set at 25:20. In the second set, the 'yellow-blues' started better and took a 6:2 lead, but after 21:21, the Germans made a series of four consecutive points and took the set 25:21.

The third set started promisingly for Maritsa – 7:2, but after an equalization at 10:10, the initiative once again shifted to the hosts. A key factor was the serving streak by Leana Grozer – daughter of the legendary German national Georg Grozer, after which Palmberg pulled decisively ahead and finished the match at 25:17.

The most effective player for Maritsa was Iva Dudova with 14 points (1 block and 43% attack efficiency), while Borislava Saykova and Vanessa Agbortabi added 8 and 7 points respectively. For Palmberg, Leana Grozer shone with an impressive 22 points, including 6 aces, and was deservedly chosen as the MVP of the match.

Mia Kirchhoff contributed another 14 points to the convincing victory of the German team.