Bulgaria dominated the first set to win it convincingly, but Slovenia struck back, squeezing out two-point wins in the next two. The southerners were the first reach set point in the third at 24-22, but the boys from Central Europe scored four points in a row to take the lead in the match. In the fourth, Slovenia had a 24-22 advantage before the Bulgarians denied three opponent match points to take the set even deeper into overtime on an ace by Kristiyan Andreev. The tie-breaker was quite one-sided and coach Miroslav Zhivkov’s squad cruised to victory with Aleksandar Kandev’s block-out shot producing the match winner.
Kandev was the best scorer of the game with 23 points. His tally included as many as six aces and four kill blocks. Kristian Titriyski added another 21 points for Bulgaria, while setter and captain Simeon Nikolov impressed with five aces, four kill blocks and seven points in attack to collect an amazing tally of 16 points, one more than Slovenia’s most productive players Luka Marovt and Miha Okorn, who finished with 15 points apiece.
In the other Pool B match of the first day, France mastered an emphatic shutout of India, with Adrien Roure acing six times to top the scorers’ chart of the match on a total of 10 points.