The eagerly awaited Champions Cup inter-club volleyball tournament for men and women is underway at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville Campus Sports Centre and all the tournament’s top seeds recorded victories in their respective opening encounters.
Local favourites, Liberte V.C. from Tongaat, the inaugural winners of the Champions Cup in 2000, were made to fight all the way for their 25-22 25-19 25-17 win against Cigma from Pretoria. UKZN overcame Limpopo’s Kamplits in straight sets, 25-23 25-12 25-15 while Stanger youngsters, KSST triumphed over Juventus from Limpopo 25-17 25-14 25-20.
Verulam lads, the Scorpions’ blistering 25-10 first set win against the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) sent shock waves through the latter’s camp. But shaking off their opening set blues VUT clawed their way back by posting a 25-22 25-11 25-19 win.
In a Pool A encounter between defending champions, the University of Western Cape (UWC) and Gauteng’s University of Johannesburg (UJ) it was the latter who fought courageously to take a 25-21 lead. Refusing to roll over and play dead the defending champions’ quick adjustments to their game plan yielded a hard fought 25-15 25-20 26-24 score line.
UJ bounced back in their second match by defeating KZN’s Grove End in straight sets 25-19 25-13 25-19.
In two sparkling matches in the men’s category on day one, Eastern Cape’s VW and Capetonians, All Star Saints recorded wins in pulsating encounters against Atlantis Eagles and DUT respectively.
VW’s Peter Size steered his team to a crowd-pleasing three sets to one victory, 25-21 25-20 21-25 25-21 against Atlantis Eagles from the Mother City.
In arguably the match of the day, All Star Saints edged out DUT 3-2, 25-21 25-14 22-25 22-25 15-13) in a nail biting five-set thriller that had the fans salivating for more of the scintillating action packed offensive and defensive strategic play by both the protagonists.
In the women’s category Cape Town’s All Star Saints and UWC registered easy wins against DUT (25-10 25-16 25-15) and University of Limpopo (25-17 25-16 25-14) respectively. In their second match UWC went on to defeat KZN’s Watsonia in straight sets, 25-20 25-14 25-19.
Limpopo’s Spartans and Kamplits went down to Cigma 25-7 25-13 25-9 and VUT 25-13 25-18 25-23 respectively.