HISTORY

 

Maritza Plovdiv is a volleyball club founded in 1950 as part of the sports association of the same name, which had been founded in 1921. The volleyball club is also the successor of the workers’ volleyball team of the Maritza textile factory. The club bears the name of the river passing through the city of Plovdiv. Both the sports association and the factory are based in Plovdiv’s Northern district, also known as Karshiyaka, hence the nickname Karshiyakaliyki has been used for many years. The more popular nickname, retained today, is based on the club colors – Zhalto-Sinite (the Yellow-and-Blues).

Among the first functionaries of the club are Metodi Batselov, Marko Shivarov and the coach-player and captain of the team Irina Garbucheva. Along with her, among the first volleyballers of the club are Atanaska Koleva, Ivana Kukova, Irina Gnutova, Lilyana Andreeva, Penka Krasteva and Temenuzhka Parvanova.

In 1957 Maritza earns the right to play in the first division of Bulgarian women’s volleyball for the first time.

The club hires its first professional coach, Georgi Markov, in 1960. He takes over the team from Irina Garbucheva. Gocho Markov lays the foundations of the club’s youth section and creates the first children’s youth and junior teams with girls from the Peyo Yavorov high school and other schools in Plovdiv. Among the many young talents Markov discovers is Anka Uzunova, the most prominent player in the club’s history, an Olympic bronze medalist from Moscow 1980, a 1981 European champion, and a bronze medalist from the 1979 European Championship, all with the national team of Bulgaria.

In 1961 Maritza wins its first national title in the girls’ category. In 1963 the Yellow-and-Blues claim their first gold in the youth category. In 1964 Maritza climbs all the way to the top for the first time in the junior age group.

Maritza’s first women’s national championship medal, a bronze, comes in 1979.

In 1997 the Yellow-and-Blues play their first Bulgaria Cup final, but end up with the silver.

In the beginning of 2009 the club is joined by Diana Malinova, a volleyball player, but also one of Bulgaria’s leading beach volleyball players at the time. This marks the beginning of the sand discipline at Maritza.

During the summer of that same year, the club earns its first and to-date most prestigious trophy in beach volleyball. On August 23 Diana Malinova & Rusena Slancheva win the title at the women’s Balkan Championship in Albania.

The start of the cooperation between Maritza and Intercomplex in 2009, with Iliya Dinkov taking the leading function at the club, sets off a new era of growth and development for Maritza.

On June 26, 2011, Diana Malinova & Diana Filipova win Maritza’s first women’s national championship title in beach volleyball.

On January 14, 2012, at Plovdiv’s Olimpiada hall, Maritza’s women’s volleyball team triumphs with its first national trophy at last – the Bulgaria Cup.

In the fall of 2012, also at Olimpiada hall, Maritza organizes the first international women’s volleyball Plovdiv Cup tournament and wins the trophy. This competition becomes stronger through the years and the home team has not yet been able to win the Plovdiv Cup again.

2013 brings Maritza the first gold medals from U22 (Teodora Simeonova & Nikol Nikolova) and U18 (Vangeliya Rachkovska & Tereza Ivanova) national tournaments in beach volleyball.

The club enjoys an exceptionally successful 2015. Having won their second national cup earlier in the year, on May 8 Maritza wins a historic first women’s volleyball national championship title of Bulgaria. On November 2, coach Ivan Petkov’s team also wins the Super Cup, shaping up the only golden treble in the history of Bulgarian volleyball (in either gender).

In 2016 Maritza’s women’s beach volleyball team wins its first medal (silver) from the National Club League.

In the fall of that same year, Maritza becomes the first Bulgarian team in the history of the women’s CEV Volleyball Champions League since Europe’s most prestigious club competition was created at the end of the 20th century. A year later, after a particularly dramatic turn-around in the clash with Russia’s Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Maritza becomes the first Bulgarian team to qualify for the pool stage of the competition.

In 2017 for the first time a Maritza pair (Lora Slavcheva & Nikol Duleva) wins gold from a U20 national tournament in beach volleyball.

 

VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN

Champion/Gold 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Silver 2010, 2011, 2014
Bronze 1979, 1996, 2012

  

VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL CUP – WOMEN

Winner 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
Runner-up/Silver* 1997, 2001, 2011, 2016
Bronze* 1999, 2000

 *From 2012 on, the competition determines only the Bulgaria Cup holder and no official standings after the second place are made.

 

 VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL SUPER CUP – WOMEN

Winner 2015

 

VOLLEYBALL PLOVDIV CUP INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL – WOMEN 

Gold 2012
Silver 2016
Bronze 2013, 2014

  

BEACH VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP – WOMEN

Gold 2011 (Diana Malinova & Diana Filipova)

2013 (Diana Malinova & Rusena Slancheva)
Silver 2009 (Diana Malinova & Rusena Slancheva)

2010 (Diana Malinova & Evelina Tcholakova)

2012 (Diana Malinova & Diana Filipova)

2016 (Diana Malinova & Rusena Slancheva)
Bronze 2016 (Teodora Simeonova & Dani Naydenova)

 

BEACH VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL CLUB LEAGUE – WOMEN

Silver 2016