Varsity 2026: The women’s volleyball team who owned the competition

It’s another year of the women’s volleyball team winning Varsity! With calm and collected sets of 7-25, 20-25, and 13-25, the match only lasted an hour and 10 minutes and was closed with an ace serve every time. The first set finished with Martina Guga’s serve and was only made better by the two aces in a row she delivered to finish the second set, which was followed up by Phillipa Ayamba’s final ace in the third set.

Ayamba’s match point reflects her strong spike at the start of the game that gained Warwick their first point after missing one point to Coventry, and her overall power as middle. Blocking a hit from Coventry that was then rebounded off of Coventry’s middle, Ayamba smashed it back down and earned one of the more exciting points in the match. The first set was also led by secure passes from libero Alice Zardo and many strong serves and cross-court shots from Julia Kueker, who displayed effortlessly smooth attacks.

Warwick used the court as their plain-sailing playground, and the only dangers that came up was a cricket ball infiltrating the area and the mascots shadow boxing each other to the chants of fans

Other than a faster paced beginning in the third set and some simple faults that lightly heated up the second set, the whole match felt like a breezy, coordinated fun time. This was especially felt when, after enjoying the margin of the first score, Warwick players switched around their positions: Kueker, an outside, and Desiree Lee whose sets cannot be glossed over, swapped to play each other’s position. This later led to Sumi Fertig, an opposite, playing libero instead of Zardo, and Zardo taking the outside in the third set.

Warwick used the court as their plain-sailing playground, and the only dangers that came up was a cricket ball infiltrating the area and the mascots shadow boxing each other to the chants of fans. A few confusions happened closer to the net, but they were always met with amusement. Coventry decided to increase their confidence too, with bigger spikes and determined runs to save out of bounds passes. From their side, numbers 13 and 7 stood out as active oppositions, though Warwick worked collaboratively around them.

Incremental points brought the middle of set 2 from 6-2 for Warwick to 15-15, 18-18, 19-19 and 22-19 until a plateau of 22-20 where Warwick happily managed the last 3. Daniela Remuzgo also sent an impressive line hit and more, while Guga continued to secure the bounds and worked up a variation of tip hits. Maureen Wei’s movement and trickier hits were also needed to make the game what it was. Zardo and Fertig’s position swap produced joyful moments too, with Zardo getting a spike and an ace and Fertig supporting a longer rally. Warwick’s strength definitely comes through as being all-rounders, and all players exhibited a fluency that made Varsity like any other fun training.