Новини

Maritza Plovdiv tops successful indoor season with U15 title

Plovdiv, Bulgaria, July 6, 2015. The 2014-2015 indoor season in Bulgaria is finally over and for VC Maritza Plovdiv it ended in style – with the U15 girls’ national championship title! This achievement rounded off a very successful year for the club from the southern European country’s second largest city.

Having the pleasure of hosting the U15 finals at Lauta volleyball hall, the young team of Maritza was inspired by the support of the fans in Plovdiv and cruised through the five-day tournament unbeaten. In the pool phase, the girls around head coach Atanaska Nikiforova and her assistant Petya Hrischeva started their winning streak with a perfect record of three straight-set victories.

In the semifinals, Maritza defeated Levski Sofia by 3-1 (25-23, 25-9, 17-25, 25-18) to advance to the gold medal match, where another team from Bulgaria’s capital was waiting. The young Yellows continued the victorious run on the way to defending their title. They outplayed Slaviya Sofia by 3-1 (17-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19) and triumphed as champions, cheered on by a full house of spectators.

In addition to the trophy and the gold medals, Maritza took three of the six individual awards – Dobrina Hristoskova for Best Spiker, Viktoriya Angelova for Best Setter and Mihaela Martinova for Best Blocker.

In a season marked by a historic title for Maritza’s senior women’s team, combined with winning the national cup, the overview shows that all seven selections of the club managed to rank among the best four in their respective age-group championships and only on one occasion did not succeed in winning a medal. In addition to the senior and the U15 squads, the U10 mini volleyballers of Maritza also brought home the gold. The U17 and the U12 teams celebrated the silver medals, the U19 finished the season with bronze, while the U13 girls of the club took the fourth place.

”This does sound like a very successful season for our club indeed,” commented Maritza’s president Iliya Dinkov. ”But on the other hand, we deem it normal. The goal that each of our teams is always facing, regardless of the age or the competition, is the first place, because the objective of our club’s volleyball academy is to raise champions. Two years ago, for example, Maritza won five of the seven championship titles, plus the national cup, plus the women’s beach volleyball gold. But what makes the year 2015 so special is the historic double gold of our senior women’s representation.”