Varna, Bulgaria, June 15, 2016 - Bulgaria will rely on the home crowd to help the team come out of a five-match losing streak against Poland, as the two sides meet in the second FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 Group 2 semifinal in Varna.
Head-to-Head
• Bulgaria and Poland have met once before at the World Grand Prix. On 3 July 2015 Poland won 3-0.
• Bulgaria are winless in their last five matches against Poland at major international tournaments, since the 3-1 win at the 1999 European Championships.
Bulgaria
• Bulgaria have won six of their last seven World Grand Prix matches, only losing to Dominican Republic in this span (3-0, 10 June).
• Bulgaria have won six of their eight World Grand Prix matches against CEV teams, losing only to forthcoming opponents Poland (3-0 in 2015) and to Czech Republic (3-2 in 2015).
• Bulgaria's most recent match was the 3-2 win against Canada on 12 June. Emiliya Nikolova scored a match-high 21 points, 18 of which from spikes. She is Bulgaria's top scorer in the competition with 80 points.
Poland
• Poland lost their most recent World Grand Prix match 3-0 to Puerto Rico, their first straight sets loss since the 3-0 defeat against Netherlands on 2 Augustus 2015.
• They can now lose consecutive matches for the first time since their five-match losing streak at the 2014 World Grand Prix.
• Berenika Tomsia was top scorer in their loss against Puerto Rico, scoring 16 points. Overall, Tomsia has scored most points of all Group 2 players (114).