Maritza celebrates seven domestic trophies in most successful season in history!

With a spectacular comeback from two sets down in Sunday’s final of Bulgaria’s U15 Girls’ National Championship, Maritza Plovdiv completed the most successful season in the club’s history – with seven out of possible eight domestic trophies across all ages. The club’s seven selections played a total of 94 official domestic matches throughout the season and lost only two of them!

The women’s representation of coach Ivan Petkov set the tone with another golden double, winning both the champion’s title in the National Volleyball League and the Bulgaria Cup back in April. It did so by losing only two sets in the 25 games played in the two competitions combined. Furthermore, during the season Maritza’s women achieved the first victory of a Bulgarian team in the pool stage of the women’s CEV Champions League.

The women’s team of Maritza triumphs as champion of Bulgaria

Maritza celebrates with Bulgaria’s national cup trophy

In late April, Maritza’s junior team won the title in the U19 Women’s National Championship after completing the season on a 14-1 win-loss record. In the gold medal match, coach Gabriela Ayshinova’s squad hammered out a heroic turnaround from a two-set deficit in favor of Levski Sofia to a 3-2 triumph with the win and the trophy.

Maritza U19 with the gold medals

The final of the U15 Girls’ National Championship was like an unreal déjà vu. Levski’s team was up by two sets, but Maritza drew level. In the tie-breaker, the Blues from Sofia were up by 7-4 before coach Petya Hrischeva’s squad went on a fantastic 11-1 sprint for the title. Upon returning to Plovdiv, the young champs attended the men’s VNL match between Bulgaria and Serbia and were applauded by six thousand fans at the Kolodruma hall. The Yellow-and-Blues finished the season unbeaten in 17 matches played.

Maritza U15 with the gold medals

Maritza U13 was even more emphatic on the way to the national title in its age category. Coach Kristina Yakimova’s girls cruised through the season’s 15 matches to the gold medals without dropping a single set!

Maritza U13 with the gold medals

Also, under coach Yakimova, the U12 team snatched the interregional championship title (Trakiya and Struma regions), the highest level of competition at this age group, losing just one set in the eight matches played.

Maritza U12 triumphs as interregional champion

Coached by former captain of the women’s team Radosveta Teneva, the youngest generation of Yellow-and-Blue players, the U11 squad traditionally won all of its four matches in the Trakiya region championship in straight sets to claim the regional title. Interestingly, the club produced a second team at this age group and the only game Maritza 2 lost was the one against Maritza 1.

Maritza U11 rejoices as regional champ

The U17 selection was the only Maritza team that did not reach the title, although coach Atanaska Nikiforova’s youths played 10 matches and won nine of them. Unfortunately, the one game they lost kept them away from the national semifinals and they finished fifth.

Maritza U17 after winning the fifth-place match

“The numbers speak for themselves. They are even a bit startling,” Maritza President Iliya Dinkov told volleymaritza.bg. “However, some of these numerous victories were particularly dramatic, especially the final matches in the U19 and the U15 championships. Each of them came in five sets and was very emotional. So yes, it was a very successful season, certainly the most successful one at least since I have been part of the club management. The quality of the work at the club is definitely rising and each year we are raising the level compared to the previous year.”

Coming up soon in Maritza’s official YouTube video channel – Iliya Dinkov’s full interview upon the completion of the club season.