Northumbria Are The Team To Beat: Vlasic

Team Northumbria’s Croatian captain has warned the club’s volleyball rivals that the Sport Central side has targeted a clean sweep of domestic honours this season.

Jurja Vlasic is one of only two returning players on Dave Goodchild’s women’s roster.

And the Northumbria University Masters student is hungry for revenge following dramatic defeats at the hands of derby rivals Durham last season.

“We’re good enough to be at the top this season,” she said. “We’re going to be very competitive and I can already see it’s going to be extremely tough to play against us.

“I’m going to put this out there now: we’re going for all of the championships and all of the trophies - we expect to win them all.”

Traditionally TN set the benchmark for women’s volleyball in the UK.

But North East rivals Durham won both the BUCS Championship and knocked TN out of the Super 8s playoffs earlier this year.

Those defeats still prey on the mind of an ambitious Vlasic and she added: “Last year Durham was the only team that got the better of us.

"Unfortunately they managed to beat us in two of the biggest games of the season but both matches went to five sets. We weren’t very far away.

“But we’re a new team with plenty to prove. There are players with no history against Durham - which might be a good thing - but it’s important that they’re aware of what that rivalry means and where this season’s threat could come from.”

Vlasic and Paige Fullerton are the only survivors from a 2016/17 roster that included long-serving duo Whitney Phillips and Magda Ropiak for the last time.

But Goodchild has bolstered the TN ranks with a raft of fresh and exciting talent more than capable of returning the Tynesiders to the top of the volleyball pile.

“Already - after the first full week of training - it feels good to have a new group of players,” added Vlasic. 

“Only two of us are returning and having so many players come in fresh has been a great experience. Everyone is eager to give their very best and everyone is buying into what coach Goodchild is trying to do here.

“There’s a new group of girls with a collective desire to win. There’s no fear. We’re a group of hungry girls chasing success.

“I like the fact that we’ve already created a family around the new team. Newcastle and the North East is a great place to be a student and a volleyball player so the new players are settling in just fine.”