#TeamUniSA Profile: UniSA Volleyball Club

Affectionately nicknamed the ‘Goats’, the UniSA Volleyball Club has had an incredibly successful last decade, winning numerous UniSport Nationals and State League titles. The Club trains twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday nights, at the Magill campus and encourages players to participate in the annual SA Challenge as well as UniSport Nationals.

How many current members?

The UniSA Volleyball Club is one of the largest UniSA Sport clubs, having 82 current members. There are a range of abilities that are catered for - from social players to the more competitive players. Players also come from many other clubs to train with the UniSA Volleyball Club.

What activities has the club been involved in over the past 12 months?

The Club competes in the Volleyball South Australia (VSA) Division 2 competitions for both men’s and women’s teams provided we have the required participants. We also held a social competition last year but have essentially moved this to Wednesday nights training's where people come and play games over the two hour training session.

Outline some of your club or club member achievements?

Over the last 10 years, there have been many highlights for the UniSA Volleyball Club. Here are some achievements:

• In 2013, 2014 and 2015, the UniSA Men’s indoor volleyball team were crowned Division 1 national champions at the Australian University Games (AUG). The team took out the Team of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year (Simone Schubert) at the UniSA Sport Awards Night in 2013.
• In 2014, the UniSA AUG Men’s indoor volleyball team won Team of the Year, led by Elliot King who was Male Athlete of the Year.
• In 2015, the UniSA Women’s indoor volleyball team won the Southern Uni Games and Australian Uni games and won the Team of the Year at the UniSA Sport Awards Night. In the same year, volleyballers won the Male (Elliot King) and Female (Georgie Rowe) Athletes of the Year and president Harriet Berman won Volunteer of the Year.
• In 2017, the UniSA Men’s team were crowned State League 2 champions in their first year playing in the VSA competition and president Jennifer Nguyen was a finalist for Club Administrator of the Year.
• In 2018 the UniSA Volleyball Club were finalists for Club of the Year.
• In 2019, the UniSA volleyball team won the SA Challenge event, while the Women's Volleyball team earned silver medals at both the UniSport Nationals Division 1 and 2 competitions.

How did your club adapt to being online in terms of engaging with your members during the lockdown?

Although the club was quite quiet socially over the time when we were closed we still updated our members on the continuously changing times regarding COVID-19. The committee took the time to discuss how we could improve the club when we went back to training, e.g. purchasing new equipment, running different events and improving member numbers during the trying times.

What is your favourite part of being a UniSA Sport club member?

My favourite part of being a UniSA Sport member is meeting a variety of new people with all different backgrounds, yet still having a common interest or passion regarding the sport.

How can people join your club?

People can sign up for our club very easily! All they need to do is purchase a volleyball membership and start attending training, we sort everything else out from there in regards to what kind of training they desire. For more information and to join the club, visit the club website. The club can also be contacted through our Facebook page.