Bojana Drca and Novica Bjelica MVPs in Serbia Cup finals

The women’s team of Crvena zvezda Belgrade and the men’s team of Partizan Soccerbet Belgrade triumphed as the 2022 laureates of the national volleyball cup trophies in Serbia, while veteran players Bojana Drca and Novica Bjelica, both former national team stars, claimed the MVP awards.

Setter and captain Bojana Drca, previously known by her maiden name Zivkovic, who will turn 34 later this month, steered Crvena zvezda to a 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 18-25, 25-23) victory over defending cup holders and hosts Zeleznicar Lajkovac in Sunday’s women’s final, played in front of 3,000 spectators. The 2018 world champion, 2016 Olympic silver medallist and 2017 European champion with Serbia masterfully directed her team’s offence, and also spiked five points herself at an impressive success rate of 83%. The playmaker added an ace and a kill block to her tally and earned the Most Valuable Player award.

Outside Jelena Lazic (15 points) and opposite Dajana Boskovic (14) were Zvezda’s best scorers, while Zeleznicar’s Jovana Mirosavljevic delivered the match high of 17 points. Her teammate Anica Kutlesic also impressed with eight kill blocks.

Crvena zvezda are by far the most decorated club in the history of the competition, with a total of 18 trophies. Their first success dates back to the 1960-1961 season, but they had not won the cup for eight years.

Earlier on Sunday, at the same venue in Lajkovac, Partizan won the men’s final to claim their first victory in the competition since 1990, and eighth overall. The team from Belgrade claimed a 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-15, 25-22) win over Mladi radnik Pozarevac, with Canadian opposite Nathan Delguidice leading the team’s scorers with 19 points, including three aces and two blocks. His Mladi radnik counterpart Mladen Bojovic topped the charts with 21.

39-year-old middle blocker Novica Bjelica, a 2008 Olympian who was also part of the Serbian national team that won FIVB Volleyball World Cup, FIVB Volleyball World League and CEV European Championship medals during the first decade of the century, and made it to the semifinals of the 2006 FIVB Volleyball World Championship, was honoured as the Most Valuable Player of the match after putting away two aces, four stuff blocks and eight kills at a 73% success rate in attack.

This was in fact the first time Partizan won the Serbia Cup. Before that, between 1950 and 1990, they won seven trophies in what was then the national cup tournament of Yugoslavia.