NULC Academy of Sport

National Volleyball student cup qualifiers

 

On Sunday 29^th November, Newcastle under Lyme College’s Volleyball Academy left in the early hours to compete in the Volleyball England Indoor student cup qualifiers at Leeds University.

A male and female squad both made the journey, both the men’s and the women’s squads were made up of NULC College students unfortunately due to injuries both teams could not get full strength squad’s; Men’s- Zakk Hadgett, Connor Grimes, Rich James, Matt Smith, Harry Dawson, Harry Kearon and Kamil Kempinski. Women’s- Olivia Burton, Olivia Beckett, Aimee Degg, Rita Magalhaes, Lucy Matthews, Florence Owen and Georgina Reah.

The student cup is a higher level competition compared to college volleyball which the students are used to playing against due to it being a University competition, other teams who competed were well-established University scholars and Academies.

The women’s team had a tough day ahead of them especially without some of their most experienced players; Rosie Barley and Georgie Reah who turned up to support the girls but could not play due to injury. Sadly the level of volleyball was too high for this young in-experienced side with missing two of their most experienced players and unfortunately the ladies did not qualify for the student finals but should be proud of themselves as they competed well throughout the day and gave a good account of themselves. The tournament was a great learning experience for the girls and really good preparation for AoC National Finals in April where they will be representing the West Midlands and for the next Student Cup qualifiers.

The men’s team had a tough start to the competition facing the group favourites Nottingham 1, a University team with a scholarship funded Volleyball programme, after a tough fought battle NULC lost the first game 2-1.

The next fixture saw NULC take on Nottingham 2, another University team, NULC went on to comfortably win 2-0.

The third fixture saw NULC take on Bristol with another convincing 2-0 win, after a tough fourth game against Oxford NULC again managed to come out on top with another 2-0 victory.

The final fixture of the day saw NULC men’s team take on Warwick; Warwick had also had a close game with group favourites Nottingham 1 losing 2-1 to them, so this looked to be a tough fixture for NULC. As predicted the game was a very close match seeing Warwick take the first set 25-22, NULC fought back in the second set and won 25-23 taking the game into a final set, the final set saw NULC lose 15-10 and lose the fixture 2-1, the long day and lack of available substitutions had clearly taken its toll on the NULC men’s team.

NULC Men’s Volleyball Academy managed to qualify for the Student Cup Final 16 where they will face the top teams from across the country such as Sheffield Hallam University and Essex University. The finals are due to take place in Norwich on the weekend 6^th - 7^th February. This is a massive achievement for the lads so Congratulations and a massive good luck from all at NULC.