15 teams went head to head in the second event of the Vice Chancellor’s Cup 2023/24, competing in a series of 5-minute Volleyball games.
There was an amazing turnout from all teams (60 players on day 1 and 70 on day 2) so a massive thank you to everyone who attended. The atmosphere was fantastic with teams being generous and donating players to help fill gaps in other teams.
Tuesday – day 1
Playing across two lunch breaks, Sports Development split the teams into four heats A, B, C and D. Group A pit together RISistence is Futile, Living La Vida Mocha, Happy Ravers and U Bunch O’Kents, which produced several close games. Having both secured two wins, teams Living La Vida Mocha and RISistence is Futile batted it out in a penultimate game. If the pre-match hype was anything to go by, this game lived up to the anticipation, with a final result of 10-9 to RISistence is Futile, securing them 1st place in their group heat. Happy Ravers snuck past U Bunch O’Kents in their final match, with a 7-6 win, though it could have gone either way. This secured Happy Ravers 3rd place, leaving U Bunch O’Kents in 4th place in their heat.
Group B saw Keepers of the Keys, Campus Sporting Exploits, DoNATS and Chipperfield Circus battle it out for group supremacy. A number of well-contested and tight games took place in this group, with the winner of this group decided in the final match. Both with two wins on the board, Keepers of the Keys and Campus Sporting Exploits battled it out for the top spot. In an up-and-down match, demonstrating fantastic play from both teams, it was Keepers of the Keys who took the victory with an 11-8 win, securing 1st place in Group B. DoNATS secured 3rd place thanks to a 17-3 win against Chipperfield and were unlucky to go down 8-9 and 9-11 to Keepers of the Keys and Campus Sporting Exploits respectively.
Group C saw Liqourice All Sports, SPP Power and Back to the Future (student) go toe to toe, with Liqourice All Sports dominating their heat with three victories and just one defeat. Back to the Future (student) secured 2nd place with two victories and two defeats and SPP Power finished 3rd following one victory. Lastly, group D saw Marlowe’s Marauders, Infomaniacs and Flu Fighters playoff, with Marlowe walking away victorious with three out of four wins. Infomaniacs managed to bounce back from two heavy defeats at the hand of Marlowe to secure 2nd place with the Flu Fighter’s finishing third in this heat.
Thursday – day 2
Feeling determined, teams returned for day two of the VC’s Cup Volleyball with lots of points still to play for.
Taking place from 12:00 – 14:00, the first hour saw teams who finished 3rd and 4th in their Tuesday heat compete for points. With a heat made up of SPP Power, Chipperfield Circus and U Bunch O’Kents, games were impressively high-scoring, with the highlight being SPP Power’s 18-5 victory against U Bunch O’Kents. SPP Power and Chipperfield both secured three victories apiece meaning the winner of this heat would come down to points difference. With a points difference of +24 compared to +8, SPP Power’s superiority secured them the top spot over Chipperfield.
Group C saw DoNATS, Happy Ravers and Flu Fighters pit together. Happy Ravers and DoNATS went down to the wire with two nail-biting games, resulting in two scores of 10-9 (one win to DoNATS and one win to Happy Ravers). DONATS finally secured the top spot due to a greater points difference of +27 to +19. It was fab to see such great sportsmanship and camaraderie with players helping to fill gaps and supporting their opponents wherever they could.
The second hour saw the second heat with Group B (teams who finished second) and Group A (teams who finished first on Tuesday) battling it out for the top points available. Group B contained Infomaniacs, Campus Sporting Exploits and Living La Vida Mocha. All the games in this group were highly contested and very close and even saw our first and only draw of the whole event between Infomaniacs and Living La Vida Mocha, with a 9-9 draw. Only three points separated first place from last in this heat, showing how highly competitive it was, and that’s just the teams were on the court. Ultimately it was Infomaniacs who secured the top spot by a single point, crushing Campus Sporting Exploit’s hopes. Living La Vida Mocha finished a respectful 3rd in this heat.
Finally, the last round of the tournament saw rival teams Liquorice All Sports, Keepers of the Keys, RISistence is Futile and Marlowe’s Marauders fighting out for the top points. In another highly competitive heat with close games across the board, it was Keepers of the Keys who finished victorious with three out of three wins, finishing the event with a 100% win record across both days. RISistence is Futile secured 2nd place, with Liquorice All Sport’s second day suffering from some heavy defeats. This left Marlowe bottom of the heat, though still securing good points for the tournament.
Rounding up
Overall, this was a fantastic event with a great atmosphere. All teams competed well and were more than happy to help out wherever they could. Congratulations to Keepers of the Keys for securing their first victory of the VC’sCup and walking away with 21 points and a 100% win record, very impressive! 2nd place went to RISistence is Futile with 19 points, and rounding off the top three was Liquorice All Sports, also with 19 points.
The Fair Play award for this tournament could have gone to a number of teams but in the end was awarded to DoNATS with many of their members offering to stay in the alternate hour to help smaller teams out. They were always so supportive and brought fantastic energy to both days.
The next event, Pickleball will take place on the 12 and 14 of December. Find out more about the VC’s Cup and view the leaderboard on our webpage.