Trieste, Italy, September 28, 2014 – Bulgaria fluently beat Canada 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) on the last day of the first week of the 17th edition of 2014 FIVB Women’s World Championship.
Key Facts:
• This was the fourth meeting between Bulgaria and Canada in FIVB World Championship. Canada won their first meeting in 1974 after trailing two sets. Bulgaria was victorious in 1982 (also after trailing two sets), in 1986 (3-1) and tonight (3-0).
• No other team has a longer losing streak against CEV teams as Canada. They were winless in their last 17 World Championship matches against European sides.
• In their first appearance at the World Championship since 2002, Bulgaria closed out the first round with nine points, in Pool B’s third position right after Serbia and Brazil.
• Elitsa Vasileva confirmed to be one of the best scorers of 2014 FIVB Women’s World Championship first phase with 75 points.
Top scorer for Bulgaria was Nikolova Emiliya with 13 points, then Rabadzhieva Dobriana with 12 points. Charuk Lucille contributed 10 points for Canada and Marcelle Shanice 9.
In the first set Bulgaria got a head start. The scoreboard showed 8-4 for Bulgaria at the first technical timeout. Bulgaria seemed unstoppable. Canada had no great impact and only scored through Bulgarian errors and rare points in attack. Bulgaria won 25-17 earning the final point through a Canada mistake.
Canada got off a better start into the second set. Richey fired a kill to put them 4-3 ahead. The score was 5-5 but two points of Nikolova and an ace of Vasileva gave Bulgaria an advantage at 8-5. After the second technical break, a spike, a block, an ace and yet another spike helped Bulgaria to open a seven-point gap at 20-13. The sets was theirs at 25-16.
At the beginning of the third set, Marcelle Shanice showed her technical abilities scoring three point in a row and keeping her team mates to an even score 7-7. A close fight began but Bulgaria kept the upper hand at 16-11. They still were on a winning streak. Bulgaria looked comfortable with the score at 19-14 in their favor and closed the set and match at 25-18.