Just a regular Saturday

On Saturday, I was helping out at the Irish Volleyball Association Cup Finals being held in UCD Sports Centre. In case you didn't know, I play volleyball with UCD Volleyball Club having played with UCC Volleyball Club before that. I got roped into helping out, but I didn't really mind as it was a fantastic day of very high level volleyball.

The day began at 11am with the school girls final involving Claremorris and Naas. I must say, I was incredibly impressed at the level from the school girls. Some of them can even play better than me! Well not quite! I am pretty good!! :) My official title for the day was "Awards Co-ordinator" which I find quite funny. Basically my job was to organise the awards cermony after each of the matches. For the schools final, Pat Hickey from the Olympic Council Of Ireland presented the awards, so I got to meet him. Hopefully when you might even see me on the TV as I pass the medals to Pat Hickey when it is shown on Setanta Sports next Monday at 9.50pm (TBC).

Anyway, after that UCD were playing Newbridge Volleyball Club in the women's cup final. While UCD were expected to retain their tropy without too much effort, I am glad to say that it was an excellent match, with UCD only winning by 3 points in the 5th set. It was a very exciting game, with some amazing attacks and defence by both teams. In the end, the better team probably won. You see, as a player with UCD you'd imagine I would love for them to win, but having played with UCC before, a rival of UCD, my heart was torn. Besides, the UCD women's team have dominated at both university and national league level, so for the sake of volleyball, I wanted a close game.

After that, there was the men's cup final with DCU Volleyball Club playing Aer Lingus Volleyball Club. It was a shame that it clashed with the Wales - Ireland Six Nations rubgy match, but looking back, people may have been better off watching the volleyball instead. There were quite a few people watching this match, but not as many as the other matches. In the end, DCU won by 3 sets to 0, but it was actually quite a close match, with DCU only winning each set by a few points.

Overall, it was an excellent day, and the night out afterwards where everyone had to wear a stupid hat, was good fun too. Not having a stupid hat, I just wore an afro wig with a baseball hat, which I suppose was quite good. Shame I forgot my camera though. I'll put up some of the photos tonight hopefully on the UCC Volleyball Club Gallery. Anyway, it won me a pitcher of Fosters, which I forgot to cash in. Woops!