Patrick Kamalu reported from the third fixture of Varsity 2016 where the UKC Men’s Volleyball team were unfortunately beaten 3-1 in a nail-bitingly close game against CCCU.

After the amazing win by the women’s side, the UKC men’s team would have been hoping to follow suit and record a win against their rivals at the CCCU Sports Centre. During Varsity 2015, the team led by men’s captain, Josh Breese, fell to a 3-0 defeat against Christ Church and were looking to make amends this year.

But things didn’t start as planned as the CCCU side raced away to 17-13 inside 20 minutes. A few errors from the UKC side were to blame but there is no denying that their opponents were on top of their game with some exceptional spikes and blocks as they saw out the first set, 25-23.

UKC needed to improve their performance in the second set if they were to stand any chance of winning the game. But the CCCU side were resilient and stood strong as they sought to stamp their authority on the game. The set was tight but CCCU narrowly again won the second set 25-20 meaning as they edged closer to victory.

David Aparu spikes the ball. Photo by Patrick Kamalu

The third set proved to be the set where UKC finally grasped a hold on the game. They quickly raced away to a 14-5 lead over their rivals and the spirit of their supporting crowd was finally showing. Incredible individual performances from Andrew Kirk, Duncan Marrett and James Marriott to name a few enabled the side to gain a foothold in the overall match as they took the third set 25-21.

The belief was starting to grow for Kent and they knew the fourth set would be pivotal in order to turn the game completely around. All they needed to do was to carry the momentum from the previous set and continue the way they playing, which is what they did as they pulled away to a 6-4 lead. However, CCCU were not giving up so easily and quickly levelled out the scores to take a slight advantage.

At 21-21, the tension in the air was mounting and it was all to play for. Unfortunately for Kent it was CCCU that clinched the fourth set 25-23 as they capitalised on two errors from UKC to win Varsity 2016 for the second year running.