The Volleyball Ireland Masters Tournament was held in ALSAA on Sun 11th May.
This was the 5th Masters Volleyball Tournament hosted by the Aer Lingus Volleyball Club in ALSAA since 2015.
It was open to over 40’s, division 1 players and below with 12 teams entering.
Players travelled from across the country and abroad to participate in this eagerly awaited mixed Masters Tournament.
We saw Greystones again entering a team with Joey, Trish & Hugh leading the charge. We also saw Edenderry making a welcome return to ALSAA with many seasoned campaigners, including captain Liam Groome and also the oldest player Ray Kerrigan aged 74.
And Grainne entered a team called Way Out from Ballymun with Allison, Jennifer, Kevin, Trevor & Pete from travelling from Galway. Aer Lingus had a good side with Chris, Deepak, Greg, Paul, Vanessa, Liga, Lisa & Inta ready for the challenge ahead and turned out to be the only team to beat the winners of the final.
The Hip(replacements)sters with of Clodagh, Vinnie, Emily, Lina, Gordana, Cormac & Pratz with lots of experience were one of the favourites.
We also had No Baguettes team of Jason, Neil, Glenn, Rebecca, Alexis looking strong and a team to watch.
Then we had a Frenstat team from the Czech Republic who travelled over especially for the tournament and they had to be one of the front runners. Linx Govender and Katerina Mrackova former Irish league players of Munster Thunder more than 10 years ago.
With all 12 teams arriving the stage was set for day of really good competitive volleyball, fun and a chance for old and new friends to meet, have a chat and catch up. There were 2 pools of 6 teams with 4 teams from each pool going into the quarter finals.
After all the pool matches and quarter finals some great volleyball and some very close and exciting matches we reached the semi-finals.
Clodagh’s team the Hip(replacements)sters beat IVI in the semi-final while the Czech team Frenstat beat Jason’s team No Baguettes in the other semi-final in a very tough battle.
The stage was set for an exciting final the best of 3 sets and it turned out that way with Frenstat taking the 1st set but Hip(replacements)sters dug deep to make a comeback and take the 2nd set with some great volleyball both in defence & attack. But Frenstat showed their strength and depth and went on to take the 3rd set and the 2025 Masters Title.
The presentation of prizes took place in the upstairs bar with the many happy and tired players getting some welcome food and drinks. The winners team Frenstat also received both male & female MVP’s with Jenda Micek and Martina Sopuchova taking the honours.
It was a fantastic day of great competitive volleyball, fun and chat and was thoroughly enjoyed by all players and spectators alike. There was a great atmosphere & buzz about the tournament with many talking and looking forward to other such over 40’s events or competition and the very welcome return of the Masters Tournament to ALSAA this year.
A huge word of thanks to the organisers, Jennifer Fitzgerald who did tremendous work doing the fixtures & information pack, Lina Dzurnak from Volleyball Ireland for all the hard work and organisation who pulled it all together, Denise Tallon who did Trojan work on the day and the stalwart Gerry White who was there from start to finish. The 2025 Masters Tournament was a huge success and we can look forward to it again in ALSAA in May 2026.
