Volleyball: Cup glory for Stowmarket

Stowmarket celebrate their county cup success. Picture: Chelsea Carter.

The indoor volleyball season in Suffolk reached its finale with the Suffolk Volleyball Association's Finals Day at Suffolk New College in Ipswich on Saturday.

In the Cup final, Stowmarket took on holders Newmarket, having both overcome Ipswich Moles twice earlier in the season and after beating each other once each in close games, the matches going to five sets on both occasions.  

Stowmarket were boosted by the return of Hermus Chon since their 3-2 loss at the start of March.  

Louis Jayasuriya's serving built Stow a 5-0 lead, in a noisy set, both teams showing how much the match meant to them.  

The five-point lead was maintained, with the first set finishing 25-20.  

Stow again took an early lead, but an impressive pancake pickup by Newmarket's captain, Rob Dovaston, helped reduce the deficit to 6-10.  

Shortly after, Stowmarket were forced to re-shuffle when veteran setter Ron Ames suffered a knee injury.  

Stowmarket's Jamie Fulinger
in action during the final.
Picture: Chelsea Carter

Stow didn't let this unsettle them, a three-point serving run by captain Kevin Kent extended the lead to 17-10 and Stow finished the set off 25-14.  

The third set was a much closer affair, the teams matching each other until 6-6 before good Newmarket attacking gave them a 9-6 lead.  

Two massive blocks from Chon reduced the lead to 11-10 and then a three-point hitting run by Chris Sherfield, Jayasuriya and Sherfield again saw Stowmarket take a 16-14 lead.

Newmarket's blocking recovered the lead to 17-16.  

Stowmarket then put together a good run during Tom Evans' service, with Sherfield blocking and Chon hitting before a block from Chon won the set 25-22 and the match 3-0 to return the Cup to Stowmarket after a three-year absence.  

Stowmarket's Jayasuriya and Newmarket's setter, Marius Opalinski were voted the MVPs.

Earlier in the day, two Ipswich teams had battled it out in the Plate final, with Meerkats edging out Eric’s All Stars to take the match 3-2.

The next major event on the Suffolk Volleyball Association calendar is the Suffolk Open at Chilton Fields in Stowmarket on Sunday, June 12. 

Information on Suffolk's volleyball clubs and this four-a-side tournament will be posted on www.suffolkvolleyball.org.uk and the Suffolk Volleyball Facebook group.