WARRNAMBOOL Volleyball Association’s (WVA) annual seaside tournament has fallen one entry short of equalling the previous record.
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A field of 73 will contest the three-day Labour Day long weekend competition at the Val Bertrand Netball Stadium and the Arc.
The competing teams include two representing South West Pirates, the representative arm of the WVA.
A senior combination will contest women’s division two while a junior outfit is chasing success in women’s division three.
Tournament co-director Craig Gibbs said he was rapt with the entry numbers.
Most teams hail from Melbourne, although Horsham, Bendigo and Geelong are represented, as are six clubs from South Australia and one from Tasmania.
“We’ve got 73, which is one short of our record (set last year). We had that number in but we’ve had one team drop out so we’re back to 73,” Gibbs said.
“We’ve got teams coming from South Australia, one coming across from Tasmania. We’re actually working on sides to come from New Zealand next year. It’s still the biggest volleyball tournament in the southern hemisphere. On average, 600 players come down, plus their support crews.
Gibbs said the tournament had eight grades, headlined by men’s honours and women’s honours. Yarra Ranges are the defending champions in both grades.
“Your best players in Australia are in that (honours) division, a lot are ex-Australian players,” he said. Gibbs said the tournament provided an economic boost for Warrnambool between the end of summer and the Easter long weekend.
“For a perfect draw our cut-off numbers are 64 or 65, but we’ll take as many teams as we can get, which makes the job harder for us,” he said.
David McConnell has the reins of South West Pirates’ women’s division two team while Cheryl Hilliam will coach the division three team.
Two other teams hail from Warrnambool but are not competing under the Pirates banner.
Nicknamed the South West Eagles, they are in women’s division two and men’s division three.
Matches start at 8am and wrap up after 9pm on Saturday and Sunday. Semi-finals and grand finals are on Monday.