UUJ Students Disappointed by Limerick

Dublin, Ireland, 19 May 2007 - The girls from UUJ had high hopes for their match against CBphoto.ie from Limerick. UUJ came to this playoff undefeated in the NIVA D1 season, and with new outside hitter Daniela Massman, they knew they had an excellent chance of entering the top flight of Irish volleyball.

UUJ started well, taking the first five points with little reply from the Limerick ladies. However, Limerick soon began the fight back and took the lead from UUJ, which they could not recover. Weaknesses in the UUJ defence were exposed by the Limerick servers, while the girls from Limerick seemed to pick up almost every UUJ attack. Limerick went on to take the set 25-20.

UUJ were determined not to let Limerick take their opportunity of a Premier 32 place from them without a fight, and came out with resolve in the second set. However, Limerick used UUJ’s lack of block in one particular rotation to pick off a number of easy points, to take an early lead from which UUJ could not return, Limerick took a 2 set lead and finished the set 25-15.

UUJ head coach Nick Wright had stern words for his team at the break as he knew they could defeat the team from Limerick. However, the Limerick team simply proved too strong for the University of Ulster students. They took a 9-1 lead that could not be overcome. A late fight back thanks to some precision setting from Hill and some quality attacks from Hamilton, O’Hagan, Massman and Bolton gave the Ulster supporters hope, but in the end Limerick took the final set 25-20 to claim their place in the Premier 32.

Coach Wright said afterwards ‘The girls are disappointed, but we know the areas that we need to work on for next year. They simply could not get started today. Losing sucks.’