Trinity College Dublin are back-to-back women’s and men’s Student Sport Ireland / Volleyball Ireland Tier 1 Cup champions after victories over UCD and Dundalk IT respectively on March 21st in Maynooth University.
First up was the Dublin derby Women’s Final with Trinity College Dublin up against UCD. This turned out to be one of the most gripping, skilful and entertaining finals over recent years with a really high standard of play from start to finish. Trinity took the opening set 25-20, but UCD won a very close second set 25-23. The third set was an epic tussle between two great teams and with the two point winning rule needing to come into play before UCD eventually saw it out 27-25.
The out-going champions Trinity College Dublin were now in a position where their title was slipping from their grasp but a strong opening to set four saw them get into a winning position and despite a late rally from UCD, Trinity secured the fourth set 25-21. This set up a tie breaker and having gained the momentum in the fourth set Trinity carried it into the fifth set and were crowned champions once again with a 15-4 win in the decider.
Trinity College Dublin Women – Ailis Wynne, Zoe Whelan, Sara Rodriguez, Lara McNichols, Emma Tamburrini, Nadezhda Gomolko, Eirini Arvanitidou, Judit Olea Quevedo, Megan Marostica, Theresa Hoch, Victoria González Saavedra, Suzuna Inoue
University College Dublin Women – Miranda Bauer, Carol Raleigh, Miruna Popa, Anna Visentin, Maria Renom, Salome Saldarriaga, Kelley Blair, Yiya Zhang, Morgan Rafferty, Avery Vogt
Bouyed by the success of their female counterparts it was now over to the men from Trinity College Dublin to try complete the double when they met Dundalk IT. A very strong Trinity side who have players who were chasing their 3rd Tier 1 Cup title during their studies showed their experience and skill in blitzing Dundalk IT 25-14 in the opening set. Despite being under heavy firing power from Trinity College in the opening set, Dundalk IT began to find their feet in the match and showed much more in set two before losing out 25-15.
The Louth outfit continued to battle for everything in the third set but with the victory line in sight, strong serving by a number of Trinity College players helped to complete the double on the evening with a 25-18 score line in the 3rd set.
Trinity College Dublin Men – Donald Andrews, Alexand Assi, Cleomene Nelli, Anton Tincovschi, Guillauma Monnier, Mark Ogden, Liam Corocran, Joshua Hsu, Alexis Spaerth, Steven Cataluna, Evan Downey.
Dundalk IT – Abhijiet Prasad, Dylan Sherlin, Himansh Arora, Martin Macicha, Chang Rong Fan, Vivien Benog, Gabriel Brogoso, Raphael Brogoso.