UU Students Draw Latvian Side RIGA in Volleyball’s European Cup 1st Round

UUJ, 31 Jul 2007 - The University of Ulster Men’s Volleyball team have been drawn in the first round of the European Cup against Lasa-R from RIGA in Latvia. The first leg of the fixture will be played in Latvia on the 29th September whilst the home leg will be played at the University’s Jordanstown Campus on the 6th October.

UU are ranked higher than their Latvian rivals thanks to their successes in the European Cup in the 2005-06 season when they defeated Lornetzweiler from Luxembourg 3-0 in both the home and away 1st Round matches becoming the most successful team ever from the UK to compete in the European Cup.

In 2005-06 the University of Ulster was able to attract players like USA’s Sean Rooney who now earns upwards of $1,000,000 per year playing professional volleyball in South Korea and looks like representing the USA national team in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Team Captain Nick Wright expects to attract a few more volleyball superstars to the University for this years campaign to showcase the sport of volleyball in Northern Ireland. He feels that bringing foreign talent to play alongside the NI rising stars will benefit the growth of the local game.

“Our University team consist of the majority of the Northern Ireland national team and part of our strategy is to attract the very best players and coaches from around the world to come over here to help in the development of our young talent.”

“This is a very exciting time for our club to be back playing in this prestigious tournament which is a professional tournament similar to the UEFA Cup in football, where all the other teams have stadiums of thousands of people and they pay all of their players full-time wages.” Dr Nigel Dobson, co-director of the UU Sports Academy said, “The UU Volleyball team has been instrumental in boosting the University of Ulster’s sporting prowess throughout Ireland and across Europe. Having this year successfully defended their Irish University Volleyball title for the2nd consecutive year, the University wishes them all the best in their European Endeavour”.