Yet another golden double for Maritza in Bulgaria

Maritza Plovdiv continued itstotal domination over Bulgaria’s domestic women’s volleyball scene by winning its fifth national cup to mark its third consecutive and fourth overall golden double.

The Bulgarian champions went through this season’s Kupa Bulgariya tournament without losing a single set along the way. In Thursday’s final, played at the magnificent Kolodruma hall in Plovdiv, Maritza cruised to an emphatic 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-7) 58-minute victory over Beroe Stara Zagora. On Wednesday, the two semifinals were held at the same venue in Europe’s oldest living city, with Beroe persevering for a 3-2 (25-15, 21-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-13) win over Levski Sofia and Maritza delivering a 3-0 (25-9, 25-6, 25-17) shutout of CSKA Sofia.

The Yellow-and-Blues triumphed with the first national trophy in their history some seven years ago, when they hosted the 2012 Bulgaria Cup tournament and emerged as winners. They followed up with claiming the national cup in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the national championship title in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and the Super Cup in the trophy’s first and only edition in 2015. However, their victory on Thursday gave them the first opportunity after 2012 to lift one of their 11 national trophies on home ground and celebrate it alongside their faithful fans from Plovdiv.

“This cup holds a very special place for me, since it is the first time I get to win it in front of the Plovdiv crowd, which makes it double as exciting,” said Plovdiv-born star player Zhana Todorova, libero of Maritza. “We were well prepared for this match, we kept concentrated throughout, which wasn’t so easy, did our job and got the result we wanted. We are happy, but also almost tearful, because the year is finished. We had a very good and united group this season, but now it is over…”

“Winning any trophy in itself is a difficult task,” said Maritza’s head coach Ivan Petkov. “Maybe our convincing results make it look easy, but there is a lot of hard work that lay the foundations of this kind of performance. We obviously have more class than our opponents, but we also had to show it on the court. I would like to thank all the players and all the staff members for another season, which was more successful than the one before.”

Bulgaria Cup 2019 – all results