Tuesday 31-03-2026 - 12:16

When I got to Wrexham, I got curious about starting to play volleyball again. It had been three years since my knee surgery, which had stopped me from playing, so I joined the Volleyball Society. It was the perfect place to get used to playing again.

 

When our Captain Dave announced that we’d been invited to the Welsh Universities Volleyball Tournament in Cardiff, I was really excited. I was looking forward to competing again and meeting other players. On the first day, we got pretty much smashed by the other teams, as it was the first time most of us had played competitively.

 

On the second day, something amazing happened: Bernie, the head coach of Welsh Universities Volleyball, came over and invited me to a trial session with them. I really wasn’t expecting that, and it made me really happy.

I went to the trial session and eventually was chosen to compete with the team at the Celtic Nations Volleyball Tournament. We played against university teams from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Brunel, Oxford, and Bath. We barely won our first match against Bath on day one. On day two, we played Oxford and Ireland, who would go on to play the finals against Scotland, and we narrowly lost both games. That meant we didn’t make the semifinals on Sunday.

 

After a nice social on Saturday evening, we started Sunday not so fresh, playing against Northern Ireland. That match ended in a draw. Our final game versus Bath ended in a loss.

 

Overall, it was a great experience. I had the opportunity to play and compete at a high-level tournament. Even though we finished last, I’m still really happy that I got to do this.