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Year formed: 1997. 

NVL Coach: Nigel Spierts. 

Social media handles: farnborough_volleyball_club (Instagram). Farnborough Volleyball Club- FVC (Facebook). 

Website: Click here. 

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After two hugely successful seasons locally and regionally, Farnborough Phoenix are relishing playing National League volleyball and testing out just how good they can be at that level. 

Things certainly bode well for the Hampshire club, given recent achievements, having won Division 1 of the Berkshire League for the last two years running and also twice finishing as SEVA winners during that time. 

Alongside that, in last year’s National Shield competition, the team also enjoyed success where they swept to a 25-17, 25-13, 25-20 victory at the Last 64 stage over a Cheltenham and Gloucester side which had just been promoted to NVL Division 2 West. 

Farnborough also put up a fight at the Last 32 stage before being edged out in five sets by Portsmouth, who completed a reverse sweep on the south coast (21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 25-14, 15-12).   

From the autumn, they can look forward to the new challenge of facing the likes of Bedminster 2, Plymouth, Plymouth Mayflower, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Southampton 2, City of Bristol and Bristol 2 in NVL Division 3 South East. 

“We are consistently winning everything we can on a local and South East level,” said Head Coach Nigel Spierts. “We want to take it to new levels and see how far we can go. 

“We want to finish as high as possible in our new league. A top-three finish is the ambition, but we’ll be happy with playing our level consistently and peaking towards the end of the season. 

“Playing different teams with different styles and players is going to make things very interesting and we would love to have a good run in the Shield to go with our league matches.” 

While it is the highest-ranked women’s side that is making the foray into the NVL, Farnborough is an active club from top to bottom. 

It operates two men’s and two women’s teams, as well as a number of junior teams that play in a combination of the Berkshire Volleyball League and Surrey Volleyball League. 

In addition, the U18 boys team entered in the national Junior Grand Prix Series for the first time last season. 

With a main indoor venue for training and matches at Samuel Cody Sports College (GU14 8SS), the club welcomes people from year seven to adults who want to train, enjoy competitive volleyball and potentially play in a team. 

Nigel added: “It started as some friends coming together to play, but quickly expanded to form the club as it is now. 

“The last three years has seen significant changes with the club growing from 84 to 178 members we have to date (junior and adults). 

“There’s lots being done in the junior setting to develop things, with the club part of the Thames Valley High Performance Training (TVHPT) programme.” 

Phoenix will go into the NVL season with a 14-player squad who Nigel says are all important and have the potential to impact the game. 

In fact, he cites the strength of the bench as one of the key components to its ongoing success. 

“The experience and leadership of Carly Lane and Ramona Dienel will be important to us, as ex-Super 8s players, as well as the versatility and quality of captain Weronika Korkosz,” said Nigel. 

“The strength of this team comes from a deep bench which are alert and ready to step in at any stage. 

“One to watch is 13-year-old Maria Smolinska who played at the U15 Inter Regional Championships in May and is part of the national team pathway.” 

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Find out more about the NVL by clicking here. 

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Big South Conference announced the nominations for the Big South Woman of the Year this afternoon.

 Nominees for the annual honor are submitted by the league’s member institutions, and a Selection Committee of Conference Administrators will determine the Big South Woman of the Year, who will advance as the Conference’s official nominee for the national NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

A total of 10 individuals comprise this year’s institutional nominees, seven of which are the official candidates for Big South Woman of the Year — Charleston Southern golfer Odette Font Garcia (Mallorca, Spain), High Point lacrosse player Esprit Cha (Ellicott City, Md.), Longwood soccer player Alex Dinger (Fredericksburg, Va.), Longwood softball player Er’ron Burton (Suffolk, Va.), Radford volleyball player Meredith Page (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), USC Upstate track & field athlete Rachel Davis, and Winthrop lacrosse player Maddy Hodgson (Lebanon, Ohio).  Also among the institutional nominees from non-sponsored Big South sports were Presbyterian top/tumbler Abigail Katz (Columbia, S.C.), Presbyterian wrestler Chiara Barbieri (Brampton, Ontario) and UNC Asheville swimmer Riley Edmundson (Flower Mound, Texas).

 

Davis, a Management major, participated in the USC Upstate Gospel Choir, was a teacher for kids aged 8-14 at Emmanuel Anglican Church, and volunteered as a basketball coach at Drayton Mills Elementary School.

Head Coach Carson Blackwelder stated, “Rachel is the perfect candidate for this award. She embodies all the qualities you think of for Woman of the Year.”

Connect with the Spartans     

Facebook.com/UpstateAthletics     

Twitter | @UpstateXCTrack @UpstateSpartans     

Instagram | @UpstateXCTrack @UpstateSpartans     

YouTube.com/UpstateSpartans 

INVEST IN CHAMPIONS – Join the Upstate Athletic Fund (UAF) and enjoy enhanced benefits for your support of all USC Upstate programs! Make your gift today, click here!

 

SAVE THE DATE FOR SPARTY’S BALL – MAY 17th – Support USC Upstate Athletics at Sparty’s Ball, the largest fundraising event of the year for the Upstate Athletic Fund (UAF), to be held Saturday, May 17, 2025 at the Milliken Club at Fifth Third Park. For tickets, sponsorship and auction information, click here!

 

Oregon State
2024
• First Team All-WCC
• Appeared in 110 sets across the 28 matches played
• Led Oregon State in kills with 340, ranked eighth in the WCC
• Hit .441 on 34 swings, collected 20 kills to just five errors in a five-set win over San Francisco (Oct. 12)
• Had 25 kills in a road win over Gonzaga (Oct. 19) and also tallied a season-best 25 points
• Season-best eight digs in the season finale at Pepperdine (11/30)

San Diego (2021-23)

• Appeared in 53 sets across 23 matches played in two seasons (took redshirt in 2022)

• Tallied 58 kills and totaled 12 digs

• Recorded 40 kills in 2023, including a season-best 11 against Tennessee, along with a career-best 13.0 points (Aug. 31)

HIGH SCHOOL & CLUB

• Three-time Gatorade Player of the Year (2018, 19, 20-21) in Maine

• 2020 Under Armour All-America First Team

• Twice named Southern Maine Activities Association (SMAA) MVP (2018, 19)

• Three-time SMAA All-Conference Team choice (2017-19)

• Back-to-back SMAA Class A State Champ (2018-19)

• Holds record at high school – Falmouth HS – for kills in a match (36)

• Won NERVA Regional Tournament with Maine Juniors VBC in 2018

• Trained with USA Volleyball High Performance (A1, 2019 and 2020; A1 Beach, 2019; A2, 2018)

• Finished third at Swedish National Beach Volleyball Championship Tournament (Tylösand, Sweden) in 2017 with partner Johanna Bengtsson

• National Honors Society member

• Volunteered at Good Shepherd Food Bank and served as a volunteer volleyball coach at Falmouth Middle School

PERSONAL

• Daugher of Louise and Matt Hester

• Has one brother, Niklas

• Father, Matt, played basketball at Hope College before professionally and later coached in Denmark

• Mother, Louise, played professional basketball in Sweden and Denmark before collegiately in the USA at Grand Valley State 

• In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, baking, painting, traveling and spending time with friends and family

Running: Happiness in every stride

Ok, hear us out.

We know athletics can have a reputation as a PE class punishment or the thing you do when you’re late for a bus. But there’s also a whole world of joy, clarity and community waiting just beyond that first kilometre.

Yes, it’s great for your body, strengthening your heart, lungs and muscles, but as with many sports above, the real magic is in what it does for your mind. Studies show running can ease anxiety, sharpen focus and lift your mood.

There’s the rush of endorphins that leaves you proud post-run. The peace of a solo jog after work, letting the day melt off your shoulders one footfall at a time. And the finish lines (real or metaphorical) that remind you how far you’ve come in a sport that asks only that you begin.

You don’t need to be the next Noah Lyles. You don’t need to sprint like Julien Alfred or clock marathon splits like Eliud Kipchoge. In fact, you don’t need to race at all. As distance runner John Bingham wrote in The Courage to Start, “If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far… You just run.”

There’s something beautifully simple about it. Running doesn’t care what shoes you wear, how fast you go, or how long you’ve been doing it. It just asks you to move.

And chances are, you will enjoy it.

Kara Goucher, a two-time Olympian, said it best: “Running allows me to set my mind free. Nothing seems impossible. Nothing unattainable.” Or take it from Mo Farah, one of the greatest distance runners of all time: “I need it as much for my head as I do for my body.”

And here’s a bonus: running doesn’t have to be lonely. From early morning parkruns to massive marathon festivals, the running community is warm, welcoming, and wonderfully weird. These days, run clubs are popping up everywhere, gathering people of all paces and playlists to join the movement.

But it’s also there when you need solitude, when you want to lace up, zone out, and listen to your breath and the steady beat of your feet on trail or pavement.

Whether you’re sprinting down a track, jogging through the woods, or taking your first ever walk-run around the block, know this: you’re in the club.

Besides, if cross-country skiing can be fun (and it is), then running can be too. Especially when it’s less about the destination and more about the joy of moving forward: slow, steady and free.

So if you want to channel the energy of Paris 2024, try organising your own mini Olympics with friends. Sadly, your medals may not feature Eiffel Tower fragments, but the memories will be just as golden.

What did you do last Saturday?

One Rye resident spent the early morning swimming the ten kilometers (6.21 miles) across Long Island Sound from Morgan Park in Glen Cove, Long Island to the Larchmont Shore Club in support of Swim Across America’s mission to fight cancer. One of eleven elite open water master swimmers (four women and seven men), Adam Coe, age 45, of Rye, made the swim. It was his second time doing a 10K and third time participating in Swim Across America. Coe swam as part of the Next Level Private team run by Barry Mitchell of Harrison.

“I’m probably the one of, if not the least experienced out of the crew [that swam Saturday],” Coe told MyRye.com, who raised $5,000 to support the swim.

You do this for fun, and to be able to take a passion project and have it be for a good cause is just a neat thing that we all like to do.”

Coe grew up in the Midwest and Texas, and played water polo for Texas A&M. He moved to Manhattan in 2007 and then when he moved to Rye in 2022 with his wife and two kids, Coe fell in with Westchester Masters, an open water swimming group. Members of the group have swam around Manhattan and swam across the English Channel. Wherever there is water locally, Coe swims – the Rye YMCA, the Greenwich Y, Oakland Beach, Playland Beach, Coveleigh Club, Manursing Island Club and Rye Golf.

“I swim all over Rye. Any place that is wet in Rye I probably swam there,” said Coe.

Next up for Coe is a swim around Manhattan – his first. The swim will raise money for Family Reach, another nonprofit supporting those facing cancer (you can support Coe’s Manhattan swim fundraiser).