The 'sea derby' between Cherno More and DEYA Sport was the most contested match of the four games played in the fourth round of efbet Super Volley. The duel ended with a 1:3 (18:25, 25:18, 23:25, 25:27) victory for the guests from Burgas; the Varna team just barely missed taking the match to a tie-break. The clash took place without a video replay system, and its absence in this important match led to problems and unpleasant arguments. The controversial situations heated passions and caused quite a few scandals and tensions. The intensity of the tension in the match had to be quelled with yellow and red cards.
After sharing one 'mirror' set each, Francesco Cadeddu's boys pressed the pedal at the end of the third set to take the lead in sets. The fourth set was the most contested, when the teams 'locked horns' and almost until the middle, no one could pull ahead in the score. The first timeout for the Burgas team came with a score of 16:13 for the hosts. This was followed by an exchange of points from service errors by Yosifov and Niki Nikolov, with the difference swelling to 5 points in favor of Cherno More after an ace by Simeon Dimitrov (20:15). After a successful attack and a break point by DEYA, the score became 22:20, when the first timeout for the Varna team came. A block by Niki Nikolov, who played perfectly in this match, followed and the difference melted to one point. The first set point for the hosts came after a service error by Dimitar Vasilev. A service error by Yosifov and a bad attack by Valdas Listankis followed and the score was tied (24:24). Only on the third attempt did the Burgas team manage to close the set and the match after a successful attack by Patrick Lamanec. The Slovakian opposite finished with the most points for the winners - 19 (1 block), 49% in attack. Dimitar Vasilev added 13 (1 ace), 50% in attack, and the central blocker Nikolay Nikolov scored an impressive 12 points (5 blocks) and 64% in attack. For the Varna team, the most effective scorer was the Lithuanian Valdas Listanski – 19 points (3 aces, 1 block).
CSKA and Hebar finished with a 3:1 (25:20, 21:25, 25:17, 25:22) victory for the 'Reds'. There was intrigue only in the second set, when the guests managed to equalize from 17:15 to 18:18, after which they took the lead and did not allow the opponent to reverse the negative score for them until 21:25. The most effective scorer for the 'army men' was opposite Strahinja Brzakovic - 24 points (2 blocks).
Radoslav Parapunov did not play. For the guests, Uriel Batista scored 21 points (3 blocks), and for Hebar, we did not see Trifon Lapkov in play due to indisposition. The setter for Pazardzhik, Rangel Vitekov, scored 6 points.
The other two matches proceeded without intrigue, where Neftochimik prevailed over Dunav with 3:0 (25:17, 25:21, 25:22), with captain Aksel Truhchev - 16 points (5 aces, 1 block) and Rozalin Penchev, who finished with 15 points (1 ace, 3 blocks), being outstanding. For the Ruse team, Vitalii Kucher finished with 13 points (1 block).
The champions from Levski Sofia faced no difficulties in their home match against Pirin Razlog, recording a clear 3:0 (25:18, 25:15, 25:23) victory. Venislav Antov finished with 14 points (1 ace, 2 blocks) and Julius Firkal added 13 (3 aces, 2 blocks). The most effective scorer was Todor Skrimov, who finished with 16 points (3 aces, 1 block) and 52% in attack, the same as Veni Antov.
The most points for Pirin were scored by Todor Kamenov and Mariyan Nakov - 8 points each. For the champions, Livan Osoria was again on the bench due to injury. He was successfully replaced by the youth national player Nikolay Nikolaev. The match was watched by Lyubomir Ganev and Dimo Tonev.
Before the remaining two matches tomorrow between Lokomotiv Avia-Dobrudzha 07 and Montana Volley-Beroe 2016, Levski Sofia continues to lead the standings without losing a set.
photos: Nikolay Varadinov and NVL
