Plovdiv, Bulgaria, October 8, 2017.  Turkey’s BURSA BBSK claimed the trophy at the Plovdiv Cup 2017 women’s Volleyball international tournament, which ran over five days at the magnificent Kolodruma hall in Europe’s oldest living city. The reigning CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup holders remained unbeaten throughout the event in Bulgaria and continued their victorious run of 10 wins in 10 matches over their three participations in the history of the competition.

After winning the Plovdiv Cup in 2013 and 2014, BURSA BBSK also managed to win the strongest edition of the tournament yet and added a third trophy to their showcase. Coach Angelo Vercesi’s squad started the competition with 3-0 victories over hosts Maritza PLOVDIV and over defending Plovdiv Cup holders Dinamo BUCURESTI from Romania. In what proved to be the de facto final of the tournament, the Turkish side persevered for a hard-fought 3-2 (24-26, 25-20, 25-17, 19-25, 15-12) victory over Greece’s Olympiacos SFP PIRAEUS – an exciting re-match of this year’s Challenge Cup final. On the last day BURSA BBSK mastered a 3-1 win against the impressive international line-up of Romania’s C.S.M. BUCURESTI to set foot on the first place.

“We are starting in the Turkish league soon and high-level games like the ones at this competition are very important to us,” said Angelo Vercesi, head coach of BURSA BBSK. “Step by step, our players who joined us only recently, after the end of the European Championship, are adapting to our game. The organisation of the tournament is perfect, in a great city with a great atmosphere. We are very happy to play here and, of course, to win is even better.”



Olympiacos finished runners-up after beating all the other opponents. They won against Dinamo in straight sets and defeated C.S.M. BUCURESTI and Maritza in four sets. The Romanian team took the third place, leaving Maritza in fourth and their fellow citizens from Dinamo in fifth. All coaches expressed their satisfaction with the high level of the event, both competition and organisation-wise.



“Our club made sure this tournament was a good experience and good preparation for all participating teams and I think my colleagues are pleased with what Maritza PLOVDIV and the Plovdiv Municipality delivered as organisation,” the home team’s head coach Ivan Petkov commented. “As far as our side, we are moving in the upward direction. Despite the need to test many different configurations on the court, the team started to find the sync in our performance that we need have for our upcoming CEV Champions League games.”

Plovdiv Cup 2017 – all results:

Olympiacos v C.S.M. Bucuresti 3-1 (30-28, 20-25, 25-21, 25-14)
Maritza v Dinamo 3-2 (17-25, 25-15, 16-25, 25-16, 15-11)
Dinamo v Olympiacos 0-3 (14-25, 14-25, 12-25)
Maritza v Bursa BBSK 0-3 (17-25, 16-25, 19-25)
Dinamo v Bursa BBSK 0-3 (14-25, 21-25, 18-25)
Maritza v C.S.M. Bucuresti 1-3 (20-25, 15-25, 25-18, 20-25)
C.S.M. Bucuresti v Dinamo 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-12)
Olympiacos v Bursa BBSK 2-3 (26-24, 20-25, 17-25, 25-19, 12-15)
Bursa BBSK v C.S.M. Bucuresti 3-1 (25-18, 25-18, 19-25, 25-19)
Maritza v Olympiacos 1-3 (16-25, 25-22, 25-27, 21-25)