Men secure title defense

The German University Volleyball Championships took place in Stralsund on the weekend of June 29 and 30, 2024. The best university teams in the country competed against each other in an exciting tournament. The men's team from WG Karlsruhe came out on top in an exciting tournament, securing the title of German University Champion for the second time in a row.

However, the tournament started differently than expected for WG Karlsruhe. In the first group match, they were beaten in two sets by a strong team from Dresden. In the second group match, they were able to gain confidence against the hosts from Stralsund and secured their place in the semi-finals as group runners-up with a 2:0 victory.

The tournament favorites from Rostock awaited in the semi-finals. With an outstanding team performance, the team surprisingly defeated Rostock 2:0 to secure a place in the final. As a reward for this performance, the team treated themselves to a refreshing swim in the Baltic Sea.

The final was on Sunday, and once again WG Karlsruhe faced the team from Dresden. In a nerve-wracking match, which went in the Dresden team's direction at the start, the Karlsruhe team fought back and secured a 2:1 victory in the tie-break and with it the title. This success not only secured them the title of German university champions, but also qualification for next year's European Championships. Furthermore, each medal winner was rewarded with a free ticket to the FISU World Games 2025.

Many thanks to the organizers of the German University Championships in Stralsund, who made a perfectly organized tournament possible. We, the players of the WG Karlsruhe, are looking forward to next year when we will hopefully be able to defend our title again.

Ladies in 5th place after a tough group stage

The final rounds of the German university volleyball championships were held in Stralsund on the weekend of June 29-30. After a long journey on Friday, the group phase began on Saturday. The grouping was unfortunate for our ladies.

In their first match, they faced the reigning and later German champions from Cologne. Despite a good game, the ladies from Karlsruhe were beaten 2-0 in the end.

In the second game of the group stage, they then faced the ladies from Rostock, who were runners-up both last year and this year. Here too, the ladies were unfortunately beaten 2-0 after a tough battle and questionable decisions by the referee.

With these two results, it was clear that the placement match on Sunday would unfortunately only be about 5th place. In the first set of this match, the ladies started rather listlessly, allowing their opponents to take a 1:0 lead. After that, however, the ladies caught fire once again and showed that they were clearly the better team. In the end, they deserved to win the match 2:1.

Unfortunately, it was not enough for more this year, but the motivation is high to compete for the first places next year. A big thank you goes to the Hochschulsportgemeinschaft Stralsund, who hosted this event and made a great tournament possible through good organization.