The Bulgarian women's national team starts today its preparation for the 2026 European Championship. The first training session is in the capital's "Hristo Botev" hall, where the staff gathers a group of 18 players.
Nine of the national team members have already been preparing since July 20 in Plovdiv, and starting today, the remaining volleyball players will join them.
Bulgaria's only test matches before EuroVolley 2026 will be against the Netherlands. The control matches are scheduled for August 15 and 16, for which 14 players will travel. It is possible that the matches were arranged with the help of the former head coach of Maritsa (Plovdiv), Ahmetcan Erşimşek, who is an assistant to the Dutch selector Felix Koslowski.
After the two test matches, the national team members will return to Bulgaria, and on August 19, they will depart for the Czech city of Brno. There, the Bulgarian team will play its Group B matches against host Czech Republic, Serbia, Ukraine, Greece, and Austria.
From the squad that took part in this year's edition of the Volleyball Nations League, 11 players retain their place in the national team. Merelin Nikolova, Miroslava Paskova, Kalina Veneva, Borislava Saykova, Viktoria Ninova, and Maria Koleva remain out of the group. Among the new names for the European Championship preparation are Iva Dudova (she missed the VNL tournaments due to a thyroid surgical intervention, editor's note), Gabriela Zhekova, Alexandra Kitipova, Emileta Racheva, Maria Krivoshiyska, Elena Kolarova, and Boryana Angelova.
Among those called up are two of the volleyball players who won the U18 European title in 2024 and the U19 World title in 2025 – setter Dimana Ivanova and middle blocker Darina Naneva. As we were the first to report, Kalina Veneva will be absent from the European Championship, Miroslava Paskova is missing preparation after undergoing knee surgery, and Viktoria Ninova, who was part of the squad for the last Volleyball Nations League tournament in Belgrade, has left for the USA, where she will continue her education at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio).
Bulgaria's squad for the start of preparation:
Setters: Dimana Ivanova, Lora Slavcheva, Margarita Guncheva.
Opposites: Iva Dudova, Mikaela Stoyanova.
Outside Hitters: Tsvetelina Ilieva, Alexandra Milanova, Gabriela Zhekova, Alexandra Kitipova, Emileta Racheva, Monika Krasteva.
Middle Blockers: Darina Naneva, Maria Krivoshiyska, Elena Kolarova, Boryana Angelova, Kaya Nikolova.
Liberos: Zhana Todorova, Mila Pashkuleva.
Photo: Nikolay Varadinov
