The Northern Ireland Universities Men's Volleyball Team collected a pair of victories over England and Scotland in the British Universities Home Nations Volleyball Championships on their way to Gold medal success last weekend in Manchester . Big hitting from Alan Workman , Nick Wright (former Criagavon Aztecs) and David Hamilton (Criagavon Aztecs) powered the Northern Ireland team to their first ever BUSA Home Nations win.

The first game of the weekend was at 10am on Saturday 20th March against England whom Northern Ireland had not beaten in over 10 years. The NI team had to play at the top of their game to overcome the English Team 2-0, winning by only 2 points in each of the sets (25-23, 27-25). The mental strength of the NI team paid off at the end of the second set after both teams had reached 25 points the NI team edged victory by 27-25 and celebrated as if they had won the Olympic Games.

Later that day the Northern Ireland team faced the Welsh Universities team who overcame the NI team 2-1 (25-15, 11-25, 15-13). Serving errors and a lack of block was the downfall of the NI team in the first set losing 25-15. The NI team seemed to have got their act together in the second set winning comfortably 25-11 although the errors were creeping back into the Irish side towards the end of the decisive 3rd set even though they had swapped sides halfway through with the NI team up 8-4. Wales eventually ran out on top winning 15-13.

The NI team had a break until the following day to regroup before facing Scotland who had just beaten Wales 2-0 in the final match on the Saturday. The NI team went out for a meal and retired to bed earlier than normal on a Saturday night ahead of their crucial match against Scotland . Coach Mark Robinson had made it clear that if they could beat Scotland 2-0 the Gold medal would be theirs.

Sunday came all too quick and the NI team seemed nervous in the warm up but Coach Mark Robinson fielded the same team that had beaten England the previous day; the starting six were: Nick Wright as opposite and captain, David Hamilton and Stephan Keiss in the middle, Chris Grant setting, Alan Workman and Shingo Gima as outside hitters and the main passing unit in the team.

Northern Ireland started the game on fire with two stuff blocks from Northern Ireland Senior International David Hamilton. It proved to be a day of Blocks for the Northern Ireland Universities team as they never looked in doubt of dropping a set and ran out comfortable 2-0 winners (25-18, 25-19).