The University of Essex’s men’s and women’s volleyball teams scooped top spots at the Volleyball England Student Cup last weekend.

In only the first year of the University’s volleyball performance programme, both teams were in the top five at the Volleyball England Student Cup, with the women finishing second and the men fourth overall.

(left to right) Arianne Ceccacci, Kearby Benak and Len Constantinou

In the finals at the University of East London, the women were beaten by holders Durham. Durham also proved victorious over the men’s team in the playoff for third and fourth place in the men’s competition.

Performance Sport Director, Dr Dave Parry said: “This is a tremendous achievement by both sides who had qualified unbeaten from the preliminary round in November. Performance coach Alex Porter has succeeded in building a volleyball programme in one year that can rival the best university programmes in the country.”

Both teams are now gearing up for achieving promotion in their BUCS leagues and are focussed on aiming to win the BUCS conference cup.