Sydney University’s  men’s honours volleyball team has claimed gold at the 2014 Manly Cup tournament held at the Northern Beaches Indoors Sports Centre.

Sydney Uni started strongly on Saturday morning, registering a convincing 2-0 win against UTS. This was followed by wins against Kiata and the NSW U19s team, which ensured the Students would top their pool irrespective of the result of the final match against Baulkham Hills – which ended 1-1.

The semi-final against fourth placed Kiata finished 1-1 at the end of the hour, with Sydney Uni progressing on a superior set score in the pool rounds.

A difficult start to the final saw UTS take a 2-0 lead, with Sydney Uni struggling against the strong hitting and serving of last year’s champions. An improved defensive performance and aggressive hitting from opposite Damien Rougetet and outside Isaac Lam saw Sydney Uni pull back the third set. A cliff-hanger of a fourth set culminated with Sydney Uni surviving two match points, before levelling the final at 2-2. Sydney uni took an early lead in the fifth set off the back of three excellent jump serves from captain Vic Nguyen. Leading at the change of ends, an exuberant Sydney Uni men’s honours side went on to clinch their first gold medal in a major club competition.

Sydney Uni also entered division one men’s, honours and division one women’s teams.