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site.btaBulgaria Opens European Volleyball Championship with 3-0 Win over North Macedonia Bulgaria's national team defeated North Macedonia 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) in its opening match of the European Volleyball Championship on Wednesday. The match was played at Arena 8888 in Sofia, with Bulgaria co-hosting the tournament alongside Italy, Romania and Finland. The championship was officially opened with a ceremony featuring a performance on a traditional Bulgarian bagpipe. President Iliana Iotova, Sports and Youth Minister Encho Keryazov, Bulgarian Olympic Committee President Vesela Lecheva, Bulgarian Volleyball Federation President Lyubomir Ganev and Bulgarian volleyball star Teodor Salparov were among the attendees. Gianlorenzo Blengini, head coach of Bulgaria's national volleyball team, fielded Simeon Nikolov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Aleks Grozdanov, Iliya Petkov, Martin Atanasov, Denislav Bardarov and libero Zhasmin Velichkov. Aleksandar Nikolov was the top scorer of the match with 19 points, while Bardarov added 15. Simeon Nikolov and Petkov scored seven points each, with the setter also serving seven aces. For North Macedonia, Nikola Gjorgiev finished with eight points. Bulgaria setter Simeon Nikolov was pleased with the convincing victory and said he hoped the team could build on its performance in the matches ahead. Bulgaria's next match is against Portugal on Friday at 7 p.m. at Arena 8888. /NF/ Additional news.modal.image.header news.modal.image.text news.modal.download.header news.modal.download.text news.modal.header news.modal.text