After winning the Exeter District Volleyball Association (EDVA) Division 1 in the 2022/23 season Thunder came amped up to win the league yet again however with the return of ESVC Lightning the teams were reset. Thunder started the season losing out to a strong PMVC team who eventually took the game 4-1 nevertheless, we bounced back the next game with a strong 5-0 win over EUVC. The rest of 2023 didn’t go ideally, having three 1-4 losses one being against the other Exeter Storm team, Lightning. After a relaxing Christmas break we came back against Kirton Wolves and following the pattern so far, won decisively 4-1. With this boost to start the new year we used our momentum against Torexe Warriors thrashing them 5-0 two times in a row. Therefore, on a three game winning streak we came into the game against Torexe Gladiators with a winning mentality. This was a long and tiring game with the sets going 1-0 1-1 2-1 2-2 and this was frustrating as we felt as soon as we caught a set the opposition would rebound with a strong set. Torexe came into the final set strong with their pairing of a fast setter and a powerful outside hitter who combined for some unstoppable attacks, and this was the part which edged them out eventually in the finals set which finished a gruelling game 2-3. After this nail bitter we were frustrated and knew that we had to put our all into the final three games, and that is exactly what we did winning all three of our last games which ended a season where we hadn’t placed quite as highly as the prior year but we came out of it as improved players who all enjoyed it.
Written by Harry Brett, No 14, Setter