First weekend of Varsity comes to an end

A thrilling first full weekend of Varsity 2015 action saw nine De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) sports teams as well as three societies in action against the University of Leicester, cheered on by vocal supporters at venues across the city.

With more than 45 fixtures across the De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU) sports teams and societies scheduled for this year’s contest, there was plenty of activity taking place during the first weekend with netball, hockey, swimming, cheerleading, poker and hockey teams amongst those in action over the weekend.

Despite a late win on Sunday for the mixed hockey team, UoL emerged from the weekend with an early lead of 7-3 in the Sports Varsity while DMU holds a narrow 2-1 advantage in Societies.

The first official victory of the weekend though went to team DMU, with the women’s tennis players coming out on top in their fixture at Knighton Tennis Centre as they won two of four singles matches and then both doubles matches.

Rebecca Thomas, Chair of DMU Tennis, said: “It was quite a close match, a lot closer this year than it has been previously, but we’re really glad to win.”

Rebecca, who won both her singles and doubles matches, added: “I just think the other teams need to be confident, we are quite well matched universities so with a bit of effort I think we can turn it around and win.”

Wins for women’s tennis were followed up by victories for the DMU Saints in cheerleading and the mixed hockey team in the Sports Varsity while in the Societies Varsity, the Libyan Society and the African and Caribbean Society both enjoyed football wins over their UoL opponents.

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Stephen Burrell, Vice-President of Student Activities at DSU, said: “It has gone okay so far, the tennis and cheerleading teams were really strong and it was a very impressive performance from the mixed hockey who won as well.

“I watched the Netball teams on Sunday and they put in some really impressive performances but you could see Leicester just had that bit more quality.

“Everyone’s done really well though and then we have the main event coming up with the Rugby at Welford Road on Wednesday which everyone should be getting down to. They look very well prepared and I’m looking forward to a great event there.”

The Varsity scoreboard had been waiting to change for some time now, after earlier action saw the DMU Falcons undone in their American Football Varsity in February during a fixture that coincided with the Superbowl, while the skiing and boarding teams also lost out to their UoL counterparts last week.

With Monday providing a bit of a rest to both sides with no scheduled Varsity events, the focus shifts to the week ahead with Badminton to be decided on Tuesday before the showdowns at Welford Road with the women’s rugby team (6.30pm) and the men’s 1st team (8.05pm).

You can keep up to date with all the fixtures and scores from Varsity 2015 with DSU or join in the Twitter debate using #TeamDMU.