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Games cheers for determined USC teams
The women’s volleyball final of the 2010 Northern University Games was an ankle-twisting as well as nail-biting event for the silver medal-winning University of the Sunshine Coast team.
“I rolled my ankle severely in the second set and was sidelined, but the team played amazingly in the remaining three sets,” said USC team manager Bronwyn Sawyer.
Bronwyn, a first-year USC Exercise Science student, has had her leg in a cast since the Games finished in Toowoomba last week.
“But we were really happy with our performance – we came second by only three points after a massive five-set match,” said the 19-year-old.
Bronwyn said it was the first competitive match for the new USC volleyball team and the students were delighted by the result.
Team members Arantxa Stevens and Catherine Daniels, back at Sippy Downs yesterday, recalled a tough match lasting two and a half hours.
Eighty-five athletes from USC competed against students from Queensland, northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Samoa in basketball, netball, touch football, volleyball, Rugby League 7s and tennis.
USC Sport Coordinator Kate Bell said the Coast teams were dynamic and energetic on the field, earning four medals, and bonded off the field too.
“I was really happy to see the positive interaction between competitors of different ages, degrees and sports,” Kate said. “Some firm friendships formed.”
She said USC’s Rugby 7s had a great ‘can do’ attitude.
“Despite only having one sub for each game, the boys didn’t make excuses and managed to defeat Bond University for the first time in the competition,” Kate said. “And USC only lost by two points in the next round.”
Medal results for USC were: Second in women’s touch football, second in women’s volleyball, third in women’s netball, third in men’s Rugby 7s.
Griffith University dominated the overall categories with its Gold Coast campus taking the overall event title for the second year. The 2011 Games will be held in Armidale.
– Julie Gatehouse