An interview with the Women’s Volleyball 1s captain

Written by Emerson Lam

Illustrated by Jenna Chiu

Volleyball is undeniably one of the more popular sports here at LSE. Allowing for both individual competitiveness and team spirit to shine, alongside positive depictions in media such as Haikyuu!, more and more people have fallen in love with the idea of playing. However, the reality of balancing university sports alongside university studies is quite distinct from what people usually think. Speaking to the Women’s 1s Volleyball captain, I learnt more about the ins and outs of playing volleyball at the school, exploring a society that has grown in popularity and success in the last few years. 

Jenna, a second-year actuarial science student, has been playing the sport for around 10 years. During her sixth form years, however, she unfortunately didn’t find the opportunity to play for a volleyball team, resulting in a short hiatus while she refined her academics. 

However, once she got into LSE, her passion for volleyball was sparked once again: “I didn’t really think about restarting volleyball until I met some people before school started who shared volleyball as a common interest. After thinking more about it, I decided to try out for the team with them, and that one step has led me to try things that I would never have thought of before starting university.” 

From there, she tried out for the team, and despite her self-proclaimed limited experience, she managed to make the second team, kickstarting her university volleyball experience. 

As with many other sports, the Volleyball team is split into Men’s 1s and 2s alongside Women’s 1s and 2s, with a newly formed mixed team introduced this year. To retain the competitiveness of the teams, they also have an intensive practice schedule on the weekends and holidays, alongside competitions on Wednesdays. However, the team also hosts regular bonding activities to increase team spirit. “Having the opportunity to chill together as a team after grueling practices has really helped me embrace the team spirit. After going through these practices together, just getting a nice drink or having brunch to fill up our stomachs does one thing: it makes me happy.” These positive experiences, resembling both collective suffering and growth, became integral to her university life. 

Obviously, being part of this team also requires some sacrifices. Having met up with Jenna during reading week, it was pretty clear that she had been hard at work studying and catching up on past lectures, similar to most other university students. However, she attributes this need to “lock in” and finish all of her problem questions as a skill fine-tuned from having to compete around the UK in BUCS. “Losing valuable hours of studying is especially difficult when university content is as rigorous as it is at LSE. It is more understandable considering I gain leadership experience, but being behind on content does take a toll. Ultimately I have to spend this reading week catching up instead of going on vacation, which isn’t too fun, but at least I can be less stressed about work for a while.” 

Another difficulty laid with trying to get herself familiar with the Volleyball England system of tournaments. “Back in Hong Kong, when I was playing for my high school, most of our matches were best-of-three, meaning that I had to spend less energy playing. However, with this format of best-of-five, these games really take a toll on me.” 

In terms of most memorable experiences, Jenna cites the multiple tournament wins and successes that the team has achieved this year. The Women’s 1 team once again qualified for the Student Cup, placing 9th in the standings. They also managed to get second place in the annual Les Parisiennes tournament, held in Paris by Sciences Po. However, a specific experience that she remembers was a game against City St Georges, where the team made a practically improbable comeback with fewer players than usual. Behind 0–2 in the game and down around six points, against an opponent that had previously beaten them 3–0, they clawed their way back to win 3–2. Even though team spirits were understandably at a low when extremely behind, this win highlighted their spirit and communicative strength, allowing them to win against this strong opponent. 

To any current students wanting to shoot their shot at playing for the Volleyball team next year, or freshers looking to join a sports team at university, Jenna says: “Come to the GIAG sessions to try out! Assign yourself to the according skill level and get a feel for what it is like to play here, and if you feel confident enough in your ability, come and audition for the team. We’d love to have you play!”

Questions

1. Self-introduction

Jenna, 2nd year Actuarial Science, 1st team womens captain (libero) 

2. How long have you been playing volleyball?

Played 10 plus years, although with a hiatus during sixth form -> played volleyball because wanted to pick it back up again, LSE has a big community so it was good opportunity to play again

• LSE has mens 1 2, womens 1 2 and mixed 
• Good opportunity to meet new people with a shared common interest, team bonding outside volleyball (pub and brunch)
• Knowing someone from before university, join team together and develop a common interest, growing both friendship and sports skills  

3. Difference between first and second year?

Different team, meeting new people after going from second to first team, learnt more about UK volleyball system and pick up leadership responsibility 

• Last year not familiar with UK system, this year more familiar 
• (relatively small) communicate with team to remind for practice, organise and train and make sure enough people are coming and deal with transport issues
  • Focus on commitment
  • Deal with student cup and logistics 

Needs to sacrifice some levels of work, need to self-discipline and take power nap, focus on schoolwork even with competitions, always catch up if possible, sacrifice “reading week” to do work 

4. Achievements:
   1. 9th in UK, qualified for student cup and achieved similar ranking as last year (7th last year, 9th this year)
   2. “Less Parisiennes” Sciences Po invites LSE every year, sends both team 1s to compete, womens 1 gets second and mens 1 gets fourth
      1. Can explore Paris in the mean time 
   3. (BUCS decent placement)

5. Most memorable moments
   1. Very specific game against City St Georges, expected to lose 0-3, but even with not a strongest lineup, we won 3-2 even when behind 0-2 and losing by 6 points
      1. Shows team spirit, calm and concise communication, strategy placement even without coach 
      2. Showing the highs that the team can achieve, never underestimate ourselves 
   2. Team is my family, “trauma bonding” but also just having fun together, making memories in university that one will never forget 
   3. Make myself more extroverted, generally improving myself and spend weekends out 
6. Tips for people interested to try playing

Come to GIAG next year to get a feel of which level you’re in, try out something new and grow your experiences. You may gain something unexpected through this time!