With a group of 9 volleyball players, the Bulgarian women's volleyball champion Maritsa (Plovdiv) began preparations for the new 2024-2025 season. The Maritsa players held their first training session in Lauta Hall.

Maritsa's new coach, Ahmetcan Erşimşek, will join the team in the middle of the week when he returns from the Olympic Games in Paris. The champions' coach was part of the staff of the great Giovanni Guidetti and the Serbian women's national volleyball team at the Games in Paris.

Traditionally, the volleyball players and coaches were greeted with a bread loaf made by the team's hostess, Lyubka.

The first training session took place entirely in the gym.

Two of the new additions started with the team - German international Vanessa Agbortabi and Ralina Doshkova, as well as Alexandra Kitipova and Diyana Borisova from the club's academy, who will be part of Maritsa's women's team for the first time. From last season's squad, Zhana Todorova, Dobrina Hristoskova, Borislava Saykova, Lora Slavcheva, and Mila Pashkuleva started today.

The U20 national team players, who are currently at the European Championship in Sofia, will join the team at a later stage.

Last season, the Yellow-Blues once again won the title and the Bulgarian Cup and will play for the 8th consecutive time in the group stage of the Champions League, where their opponents will be the current Champions League winner - the Italian Antonio Carraro Imoco (Conegliano), the Polish Developres (Rzeszów), and the winner of the clash between the Bosnian Gacko RD Swisslion (Gacko) or the Croatian Mladost (Zagreb).

Maritsa starts the new season in the championship with a home game against Levski (Sofia), and the first match of the Champions League group stage is at the beginning of November - an away game against the Polish Developres (Rzeszów).