It was a few years since Exeter Storm last appeared in NVL, dropping out of Division 2 in 2016. Delayed by the COVID pandemic we finally made it back. Competing against the best teams in the South West the mission was on to get back to the highs of National League Volleyball. The league includ South Hants Men, Team Bristol Men’s, Southampton Volleyball Club Men, Bedminster Volleyball Men,Wessex Men 1 and Exeter Storm. The league began with a victory away to South Hants on 2nd October 2022, a fortnight later came two more wins in a double header verus Team Bristol and Southampton VC. A weekend highlight saw a first score of 25:06. Another double header, a month later, saw more victories come against Wessex Men and South Hants. December saw us play against Bedminster home and away in the same day, no let up for us there as we went away with victourious in both matches. Christmas delivered with the final round of the calendar year present us with a home win against Southampton and Wessex. Though the first set against Southampton was much closer 25:23 that the first match of the season. South Hants came to us at the end of January for a first set masterclass, 25:07, but they came back fighting and pushed us to 27:25 before tiring and handing us our 10th win of the season. With only 6 teams in the league, we were playing each team three times across the season. We took a clean sweep against Southampton and Bemi as we won our 11th and 12th fixtures of the season. A week later Team Bristol pushed us the furtherest, making sure that we earnt the victory 25:23, 25:23, 25:19 and still unbeaten. The final day match day of the season, the league was wrapped up but we were going for an unbeaten season and still had to see away Wessex and Team Bristol. It wasn’t simple but the lads did it. Two more 3:0 wins and the men completed the impossible. 15 games played, 15 games won. 45 sets played, 45 sets won. Most importantly promotion to National League Division 2!
Written by Rob Young, Men’s Captain.
Back row, left to right: Ben Fairweather, Simone Michele, Stanislaw Dunat, Jack Hunter, Christian Grimes and Ben Newman. Front row, left to right: Rob Young, Rudy Karacay, Mathias Ferrari and Elliot Lipscombe.