3 Feb 2024
Student Cup Final 2024 preview: Southampton, the University of Bath and Sheffield Hallam in focus
At one point it looked destined that the University of Southampton’s Men wouldn’t even make it to the Student Cup Qualifiers competition, let alone progress to finals weekend.
En route to their initial group matches at Ashcombe, the bus they were all travelling in broke down, leaving them anxiously looking at their watches.
Thankfully, the problem was eventually fixed and they were able to continue on to Surrey, albeit in such a rush that they were unable to warm-up fully, and duly lost their opening match to fellow finals weekend qualifiers, the University of Cardiff.
From then on, however, the team recovered well to record consecutive victories over University of Bath, Royal Holloway and Solent University to finish second in Pool B behind the Welsh side, which was enough to book their place in this weekend’s last 16 in Norwich.
Gavin Lee, who plays as libero or, occasionally as an outside, believes it is the first time in 10 years that Southampton have made it this far.
“It’s fair to say that the qualifiers didn’t go at all smoothly for us” he said. “Breaking down in our transport on the way was not the ideal way to prepare for a match!
“But we managed to get there eventually and though we didn’t have much preparation time, we were able to do pretty well in the end.
“We lost the first match to Cardiff, but there’s no saying that wouldn’t have happened anyway even if we had arrived in plenty of time because they showed throughout that they are a strong team.
“We were just glad that we could get some wins and then we were delighted to see that we had qualified for the finals.
“To my knowledge, and through my research, it looks like it’s been a while since we’ve been at this stage of the event, so there’s been quite a lot of interest from the university.
“The Sports department have wanted to find out more about the event, how we qualified and want us to keep everyone updated with social media and a blog post.”
At the University of East Anglia, the weekend’s host venue, the University of Southampton will take on Imperial College London, University of Sussex, University of Bradford, with two quarter-final places at stake.
Gavin is optimistic the team, having already demonstrated their resilience, can progress further, but insists the team’s achievements will have been notable regardless.
The Business and Economics undergraduate said: “It is a big challenge at this stage because it’s only the best teams that are left – it's probably the biggest challenge we have faced as a team.
“We are mainly a team of international students - I, myself, am from Malaysia - and we don’t have a whole lot of experience. What we do have is a really strong bond together that we’re looking to strengthen even further with this trip.
“We really fancy our chances, even if we know it will be hard. We have played Imperial quite a few times in friendlies and have a good relationship with them. We have lost a couple of times, but we have also beaten them, so it should be an interesting one.
“If we could progress to the quarter-finals, get into the last eight, then I think that would be a really good outcome for us. The weekend’s matches are something we are all looking forward to.”
Also heading east for the weekend are the University of Bath Women, who emerged in second place from their pool, also played at Ashcombe.
With King’s College winning all their matches to finish top of the pile, the South West team edged out by Team Surrey on set difference.
Co-captain Alice Zundo, who was born in Italy, grew up in the Netherlands and attended an American international school, says her team are relishing the occasion.
The setter said: “We qualified for the finals weekend last year as well, but this is a much-changed team from then and myself and a lot of the others haven’t experienced it.
“We have players from all different countries speaking all different languages – I think only one of our team is originally from England, so it’s interesting to see the way that people have played and learned the game around the world.
“Our middle is Greek and a fantastic blocker at 6ft 1ins, while our outside Monica and my fellow captain Helen are also really good players too.
“It’s been exam season, so we have had to fit in training where we can, but we have still managed to get in two or three sessions each week and had some BUCs games to help us prepare.
“The pool that we are placed in at Norwich is going to be tough, as Nottingham and Durham are both historically strong and have Super League teams as part of their set-ups.
“It is sure to be a step up from normal BUCs level, but we would rather have challenging matches than easy ones.”
Alice, who is in the fourth year of a five-year combined Bachelor and Masters course in Biomedical Sciences, is hoping that the experience of the team will be of benefit when matches get underway.
Like Gavin, she hopes the team can clinch a last-eight spot.
She said: “We don’t really have a position in mind that we want to achieve, we just want to go and enjoy the weekend as we are delighted to be there.
“But the higher we can finish the better and if we get first or second in our pool, given how strong the teams are, then I think that will have been a success.”
For Sheffield Hallam, clinching a place at Student Cup Finals Weekend was a huge fillip in itself given it meant they came out on top against fierce city rivals the University of Sheffield.
The Pool E qualifier, contested in Leeds could not have been tighter, with the two South Yorkshire unis vying for top spot.
Both teams had won their first three matches going into a winner-takes-all decider for top spot – which was then drawn as both teams won a set by the identical score of 25-21.
With two level on seven points, it was Hallam who finished top of the pile by virtue of a superior set difference – six to four.
It was a ‘fantastic’ moment for outside hitter-cum-middle Sofija Dragisic-Wood who was delighted to get the better of their neighbours for the first time.
“The qualifiers were pretty intense for us as we had games back to back, but to get the better of Sheffield, with the rivalry we have, was very satisfying.
“They are in the seem BUCs group as us and we play them in the Varsity match as well, and they always seemed to get the better of us, so to do it this time was a big achievement for us.
“A lot of us are friends when we are off the court, but once we get on it, we obviously all want to win, and it could have not been much closer in the end, coming down to a couple of points here or there.”
In Norwich, Hallam will now take on Loughborough Students, UCL and the University of Brstol for a place in the last eight.
Sofija knows it is likely to be tough to finish in the top two – particularly given their team will be far from full strength – but says the team are ready to enjoy the experience no matter what happens.
She said: “As far as I am aware, this is the first time the women’s team has qualified in recent times, so it is a real shame that around half our team won’t be able to play at the weekend. Some are playing for Super league and NVL teams and others away doing something else.
“But we are going into it with the pressure now off – it is an achievement for us to get here in the first place – and we are just looking forward to enjoying the weekend.
“In the qualifiers, we served well and also defended well, getting a lot of balls back in play, so hopefully that can serve us well against some of the attacking teams we expect to come up against.
“There are no real expectations at this level of the competition, but people might not pay too much attention to Hallam and maybe that can help us surprise a few people.”
Click here for more Student Cup information. Click here for Volleyball England's live streaming page, where you can watch Sunday's semi-finals and finals, as well as a selection of Saturday's pool matches.
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