The UCD mixed volleyball blitz took place the first weekend in February, bringing people from all over the world. The tournament consisted of 15 teams each with 3 women and 3 men with people from Central Europe, Poland, America and Sierra Lyon. The organization of the tournament was finally tuned to ensure maximum court use and playing time. Sergio Sparviero had worked everything out on computer were able to keep us up-dated on the score with automatic printouts. It certainly surpassed the traditional clipboard of fore years. The tournament started with fifteen teams in three different pools playing off against each other to decide whether they would be placed in the cup or the plate competition. Seven for the plate and eight for the cup. Levels were very diverse and the play was quite relaxed at the beginning.
The play offs lasted until Saturday afternoon and then things started heating up as teams competed for the top four semi final positions on Sunday. The blitz wouldn't be the blitz without the function night. Upstairs in the Gingerman, teams transformed rivalry into drinking companionship. The group was so eclectic that the DJ confessed to me later that he had no idea what to play. He did a great job, judging from the cracks on the dance floor. At one stage everyone started jumping together (the dance version of the Mo jump I believe) and it looked like the floor might break altogether! Thankfully, we had learned the mistake of former years and managed to keep the numbers down. However I must remember to book the basement for next year. The one with padded walls and reinforced floors!! It was a great night, but sure enough the cause of bleary eyed players stumbling onto court on Sunday.
Two of the UCD teams (R&B and the less inventive UCD 1) had made it into the semi-finals and were pleased not to be playing each other. UCD have won it for the last two years and separate semi-finals increased the odds for another victory. UCD 3 were also in the plate semi-finals so they looked likely to dominate the whole tournament. UCC and Trinity were their rivals. R&B battled with UCC and UCD 1 took on Trinity. Both semi-finals were very close. UCC had the intervarsity MVP playing for them and he shone through again as a star. However it was still no match for the defense of R&B, who won. Trinity and UCD, old rivals, battled it out for the other place in the finals. Trinity had beaten UCD in the qualifying rounds so UCD were out for revenge and Trinity wanted to prove that they could beat them again. Mark Heffernan took control of the game and Wiebke scored several killers hits. Sierra Lyon's national player Lancaster Palmer and professionally trained Belgian Jan Van Der Fraenen showed us the full potential of the jump serve. After a close match, UCD managed to exact their revenge taking the other place in the final. So it came down to UCD 1 versus UCD R&B, leaving supporters with divided loyalties. R&B had a predominately French team, while UCD was more international with both the aforementioned Lancaster and Jan. Lancaster and Jan were in top form smashing balls and jump serving at top speed. R & B played more defensively with Laurent diving about the court picking retrieving the hardest of hits.
UCD won overall but both the male and female MVP's (Laurent Cretey and Alison O'Neil) came from R & B.
Miriam Gormally. Blitz Committee 2003, UCD VC.
UCD Blitz 2000 – Darwin would have approved.
25 volleyball teams gathered in UCD last Friday evening, the 10th November. They came from near and far. They represented league volleyball, college volleyball and several other (as yet unidentified) types of volleyball too. The UCD organisers were frantically trying to put everything in place as the hour of six o’clock approached. Equipment was set up (eventually, after a couple of attempts), referees were coerced and then suddenly, Blitz 2000 was off and running. The pace of matches was dizzying, the volleyball skills were varied and interesting, the refereeing was even more varied and interesting and we at UCD were trying to keep it all together and running (more or less) on time.
The early results indicated that those teams featuring the star talents of the Premier leagues were going to do well and the
UCC,
ECC and Microsoft contingents also showing good form. Belfast (an accidental misnomer resulting from the similarity of Brian Cullen’s and Belfast City’s initials!) featured national team players including Simon Moore and Olive Rossiter as well as Brian himself. Mixed Bag, compiled by Kieran Moran of
DCU featured Jeff King and Dennis Walter of
DCU and Anna, Avril and Miriam from the UCD Premier team. Heffo’s Army didn’t feature as many Dubs as the name would suggest but did feature Niamh Conner, Trevor Coffey and Mark Heffernan from that county, three Frawley siblings from Galway and Ashley Knap from USA respectively.
By the end of Saturday, the picture was very much clearer with Mixed Bag, Heffo’s Army, Belfast and
Aer Lingus (who sneaked in there without many noticing them) into the semis on Sunday and the Plate competition reduced to eight teams, of which UCD2,
DCU,
UCC and DIT looked the most promising. So, in order to prepare thoroughly for Sunday, everybody descended on The Gingerman pub in town for a party, and what a party it turned out to be with more volleyballers to the square metre than we’ll ever see again. Those who didn’t have matches the following day let loose and those who did, let even looser!
Sunday morning and a suitable soundtrack at 9.45am in UCD Sports Center would have been Ennio Morricone’s theme from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as the place was deserted and quiet and those that were around fitted the description of good, but mainly bad and ugly. By 10.10am though, all had changed and the tournament was in full swing again. Teams were dropping out one by one and only the fittest survived to contest the two finals. A deserving DIT team, captained by Matthew Carroll beat
DCU, captained by Sharon Glynn, to win the Plate competition and so it was onto the Cup Final.
This was between Heffo’s Army who had beaten a gallant
Aer Lingus in the semi and Mixed Bag who beat Belfast. Rory Wilson deputised for Kieran Moran who had fallen prey to an (hopefully minor) injury and he was up against his good friend Heffernan in this exciting match. The match itself went to a deciding set with Heffo’s Army winning by the most slender of margins. It was a fitting end to what had been one of the best tournaments in recent years with a high level of play and sporting behaviour, exemplified by the MVPs for the tournament, Jeff King and Ashley Knap. Thanks must go all who made it possible, especially Conor, Louise and Miriam from the Blitz committee and special thanks to Kevin Donnelly for all his assistance during the weekend. I’m already looking forward to next year. Anyone interested in playing in next year’s Blitz, contact UCD VC during October 2001 and we’ll include you.