BENU Hungarian Women's Cup: UVSE defends its title
After losing in the cup final in 2022, UVSE won their fourth consecutive UVSE-FTC gold match in the final held at Szőnyi út. The lilies jumped ahead by four goals at the beginning of the third quarter in the final, and the greens were unable to come within at least one goal of the title defender thereafter. The bronze medal went to the team from Újváros.
At the start of the final, both teams scored beautifully, with the first four attacks ending in goals; then the defenses tightened, and the next goal came four minutes later, with Vivien Bonca giving the lead to Ferencváros, but Zoe Lendvay equalized with a beautiful action goal shortly before the end of the period. The defending champions had an excellent start to the second quarter, first Tekla Aubéli assisted Kamilla Faragó, then Kata Hajdú scored a quick action goal after a steal. Dóra Leimeter quickly responded with a penalty shot, but on the other side, Vanda Baksa's left-hand finish went in, although Tamara Farkas's shot was also deflected into the net. Within four minutes, the score reached 6-5, followed by the next four intense battles without goals, until the final attack, when Aubéli executed a patient man-up play at 0:05 to score, making it 7-5 for the lilies at halftime.
Soon they extended their lead to 9-5, as they began the third quarter with two more precisely executed advantages, finished by the two official scorers, Kata Hajdú and Kamilla Faragó. Zsuzsanna Máté's long-distance shot seemed to awaken Ferencváros, but Faragó's last-second shot quickly dampened their spirits (10-6). There could have been more goals, but a scoring opportunity was missed by the lilies, although Ferencváros seemed quite confused, with Flóra Fekete's late action goal providing some hope for them.
However, Vanda Baksa promptly passed the ball between two defenders and the goalkeeper, restoring the four-goal difference. Excitement started to build again, as Fekete immediately scored, but UVSE stopped scoring, though it was the psychological moments that the Ferencváros side missed. Eleftheria Plevritou, who had an excellent season overall, had a disastrous game, further emphasized by missing a penalty and wiping the ball into the goalkeeper. Prior to that, Szonja Golopencza made a phenomenal save against Leimeter's clear chance, then, after Plevritou at least produced a beautiful play, the greens missed two man-up chances. The champion team's defense worked seriously, with Golopencza's saves and the blocks consistently in their positions, so although they did not score in the final seven minutes, UVSE ultimately lifted the trophy. The lilies won for the seventh time in their history, standing just one win behind the record-setting team from Újváros; it is also worth noting that in the past three seasons, they lost the first of five finals against Ferencváros (in December 2022, in the Hungarian Cup), but have since won consecutively over the green and whites: the 2023 Euro Cup, followed by last year's cup and league finals, and now this one again.
The bronze medal went to Dunaújváros, who won an enjoyable and thrilling match against BVSC. Although Újváros took the lead initially as the favorite, the railway women spun the second quarter excellently and took the lead before halftime.
At the start of the third, DFVE took the lead again with two quick goals, then after a serious swimming program, Tamara Kolarova equalized for BVSC with an action goal. However, after 7-7, the Zugló team made several mistakes, and their opponents capitalized on this with a 3-0 run: after two great goals by Brigitta Horváth, Laura Kardos scored from a turn, giving Újváros a 10-7 lead. BVSC did not crumble, managing to score before the break and then narrowed the gap to 10-9 with a penalty from Panna Petik in the final quarter. However, before the Budapest team could gain momentum, Krisztina Garda settled the match with two terrific long-distance goals in 50 seconds. Although Panna Pőcze quickly responded, in the remaining 3:19 minutes, they couldn't get closer to Újváros, who secured the bronze medal.
BENU Hungarian Women's Cup
Final
Bronze Match
