The women's Cup title has eventually found its way down south after several attempts over the past few years; UCC overcame UCD in this year's Final in the UL Arena to deny an incredible 8th title in a row for the Belfield side. In the men's Final, UUJ had a strong start against Queens but were forced to battle through after a determined and aggressive fightback by their city rivals.
Both UCC and UCD were amongst the early pace-setters from day 1 of the women's competition as they recorded straight set victories in both of their opening games to qualify for the Cup. Also joining them were UUC, who achieved the same feat, along with the hosts UL and DCU who both qualified as the best 2nd placed teams. In the men's competition, defending Champions UCD were unable to qualify for the Cup competition after being pegged back by strong sides from UCC and CIT, who both qualified for the Cup. Also progressing were UUJ, RCSI and Queens.
On the 2nd day of competition, the Cup competition took centre stage with a group of 5 determining the standings for the men and women, with only the top-4 in each progressing to the following day's semi Finals. UCC recorded an early 2-0 win over UCD to make them clear favourites for achieving 1st place in the women's group, although the score lines were marginal. UCD did recover to record victories over DCU and then the hosts UL, to finish as runners-up. UUC finished 3rd with an important win over UL, meaning UL would have to face UCC in the Semi Final, while UCD would face UUC.
In the men's Cup, there were fantastic exchanges between UUJ, CIT and UCC, who were recording victories over each other. All three eventually made it to the Semi Finals, with Queen's also in the mix for the final day's action.
On the Final day, there was some equally intriguing action in the Plate Competition. Last year's Plate finalists IT Carlow and last year's Cup finalists UUJ battled out the women's Final with the Belfast side winning 3-0, while UCD men made up for their absence in the Cup Competition by winning the men's Final against an equally balanced DCU side 3-2.
In the Cup Finals, UCD may have started out as slight underdogs, taking into consideration UCC's advantage of having more experience and also the result between the sides the previous day, however it was indeed the Dublin side who were first of the mark as they proved their worth and right to be in the Final by winning the 1st set. UCC shook of the nerves however and were able to force their way back into the match, winning the 2nd and 3rd sets, thanks to some intelligent ball placing. UCD played with pride in the 4th set, yet the better start by the UCC girls helped them see out the match when the UCD side were closing in, as they halted the opposition's highly commendable 7-year dominance of women's Intervarsity volleyball.
In the men's Final, UUJ made a great start to their 4th successive Intervarsity final appearance by claiming the opening two sets, attempting to make up for last year's loss to UCD on their home patch. Their attacking threats from the start were however being anticipated thereafter and Queens managed to up in some of their own attacking capabilities, helping them the 3rd and 4th sets. The tie-break was an exciting affair with Queens leading by 2-points at the change around, but it was the Newtownabbey side that prevailed to win their 3rd title in 4 years.
MVP Awards:
Best Male Hitter : Matt Carere (UCC)
Best Male Setter: Alan McKnight (Queens)
Best Female Setter: Kirby Flynn (UL)
Best Female hitter: Katsura Koyama (DCU)
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