Maritza’s dream run stops at 145!

Maritza Plovdiv’s incredible winning streak in Bulgaria’s National Volleyball League that lasted well over seven years ended after 145 consecutive victories. On February 4, 2023, the eight-time back-to-back Bulgarian champions lost their game at CSKA Sofia in five sets, by 2-3 (24-26, 26-24, 25-21, 22-25, 13-15), their first NVL defeat since November 2015.

The Yellow-and-Blues’ dream run started on November 21, 2015 with a straight-set victory at YEB Shumen 05. The 145th consecutive win was also a clean sweep, over new city rivals Maritza 2022 Plovdiv on January 27, 2023. In fact, as many as 123 of these wins were achieved in straight sets (including two awarded results). In 19 of the games, Maritza won in four sets. In only three matches, the team from Plovdiv had to resort to a tie-breaker fifth set, and the last time it happened was in November 2017.

On Saturday at CSKA, Maritza not only lost their first match, but also their first sets of the NVL 2022-2023 season. Maritza mastered its longest series of 16 consecutive matches without losing a single set from October 2019 to February 2020.

Levski Sofia, the last team that beat Maritza before the victorious streak started, suffered the most during the streak itself, conceding as many as 20 back-to-back defeats. Kazanlak Volley suffered 19 losses, while CSKA were beaten 18 times before putting an end to it all.

National Volleyball League 2023 – schedule, results, standings