London University volleyball team, sponsored by AQA 63336, triumphs in national cup

8 May 2008

Last year AQA 63336 sponsored the University of London Union (ULU) Women's volleyball team. They've had unprecedented success this season, winning all but one game – and now they're UK women's national champions!

The Cup Final, held in the last week of April, was a thrilling five setter between Polonia Ladies and ULU, with ULU winning the Cup on their debut at the Finals.

Volleyball England reports:

"Things were close throughout, with Polonia taking the first set 25-20 with impressive play from their line-up, including former England Juniors, Rachel Turner and Kelly Jones, both joining the team this year from Warwick Riga. In the second set Polonia kept up their aggressive play with great kills from Jevgenija Livca and Barbora Kurucova. ULU's defence was resilient, however, and they soon went ahead 13-7 with some impressive play from setter Cristina Alcaide and power from Gabi Medricka. Czinegeova added power to ULU's attack, slicing through Polonia defence 19-13 and ULU soon wrapped up the set 25-14 to level the score.

In front of filling stands, full of juniors playing at tomorrow's finals, the atmosphere was electric. With Livca and Moore on the block, Polonia looked strong, but ULU were holding on at 9-11. Medricka wrapped up a fantastic rally to take the score to 12-14 but Polonia pushed hard to bring the momentum back their way, 12-18, and a wayward serve from ULU ended the set 16-25.

Into the fourth set emotions ran high. Things were level at 6 all and with impressive play from ULU's agile libero Aroni and power from Medricka, things looked up for ULU who came back from 15-17 down to take the set 25-22.

The fifth set saw Polonia storm ahead to a 5 point lead, thanks to an ace by Turner and fantastic play from Livca. After a service error apiece, ULU started to creep back to 3-6 and the teams were soon neck and neck at 9 all. Both teams played a passionate final but ULU ultimately took the prize, taking the fifth and final set 15-10."

Final score:

University London Union 3-2 Polonia Ladies
(20-25, 25-14, 16-25, 25-22, 15-10)

You can read more about the ULU team.

Here's some recent volleyball Q&A's texted to 63336 that we bet you didn't know:

Q. Name some other sports apart from Netball that begin with N?

A. Sports beginning with N other than netball are Newcomb ball (a volleyball variant), Nok hockey (a combination of pool and hockey), and Nordic skiing.

Q. How did Alan Hanson get that scar on his head?

A. Alan Hansen's scar was caused by him running through a glass door when he was 17. It happened because he was running late for a volleyball tournament.

Q. Can you give me the diameter of balls used in popular ball games?

A. Squash & table tennis balls have a diameter of 40mm. Tennis balls are 65mm, water polo balls are 100mm, volleyballs are 650mm and a football is 700mm.