Volleyball is one of the most appreciated and widely played sports at the University of the West Indies Mona campus. Presently there are two teams – male and female-  consisting over 50 members inclusive of players, reserves, team builders and other committee members. These members are committed, consistent and have excellent team relationship.  Over the years the Un  iversity has contributed to sports in Jamaica as many of the UWI Volleyball players goes on to represent Jamaica on an international level.  Some of these persons who represent their country are Richard Reynolds, Paula and Cherine Richards, Delford Morgan, Cheryl Daley just to name a few.

Oniel Ebanks, Volleyball head coach at the UWI took up the position in 2009 and has realized that much work needed to be done in the arena of redirecting the group’s talent into a more competitive one.  The teams did exceptionally well in the intercollegiate tournaments for the 2009-2010. The two twelve (12) member intercollegiate teams- male and female- were assembled by the coach to participate in the UWI Invitational Tournament. The female team played a good match  but failed to make it to the semi-finals. Alicia Williams a new but active member of the team associated their failure to la ck of punctuality and inconsistency in the last few weeks of the competition, however she pointed out that her team members played really well and that they had a chance at winning. The Male team on the other hand had much ‘tougher’ assignments according to Ebanks.

The Mona teams were invited to the UWI Western Jamaica Campus to participate in an evening of games- in an attempt to develop an interest in volleyball at that campus. Each team played two games and was successful with convincing 2-0 victories. The female team further participated in the Woolmer’s Girls’ Grass Court Competition, in which they placed second losing to defending champions Old Harbour High. 

The first tournament on the intercollegiate calendar was the 4 on 4 beach volleyball Tournament which had a fair share of havoc, until it finally found a home at the UWI Mona sand court. The female team lost in the final 2-0 to G. C Foster College while the male team also lost in the 3-0 to University of Technology (UTECH). The intercollegiate hard court competition started on March 4, 2010. Below is a list of preliminary round matches and results:

The semi-final round of the competitions took place on April 31, 2010 at the UWI Bowl. Both teams were in second place going into the semifinals as a result of losing a game each in the preliminary round- the females lost to G.C. Foster College 3-0 and the male to UTECH 1-3. The female team made it to the finals but lost to G.C Foster 3-1; the male team after losing the semifinals went on to defeat Portmore Community College (PCC) 3-0 for third place.

 Coach Ebanks summarized that, ‘overall, I believe that the teams gave good account of themselves, despite falling short in the final set of games. The female team shows a lot of potential [however] the male team did not live up to their expectations and did not play to their full potential.’ He further noted that ‘more could have been achieved based on their performance in the matches during preliminary round.’ Manager of the volleyball Teams Necesia McNab supported the coach’s opinion  and added that the teams ‘demonstrated great potential  however the University need to play a more integral role where advertising is concerned.’

Captain of the male volleyball team (2009- 2010), Shane Dwyer-captain team, commended his team for their excellent work and invites males who are passionate about volleyball and have a desire to play at the University level to attend trainings and try-out, for males: Monday and Wednesday 8-10pm and Saturday 3-6pm for females Tuesday and Thursday 6pm-8pm and Saturday 12-3pm at the UWI Bowl. For this semester the volleyball team has many upcoming events inclusive of UWI Tournament in November, National Club Competition in January and Inter-Campus Games in May.

Jessica Tyghter

UWI Sports Department Writer