Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) men’s volleyball team finished the second place in a national tournament, UPH Week of Champions conducted by University of Pelita Harapan (UPH), Karawaci, Tangerang last week. The team was defeated by STIE Banten in a final round.

In an interview on Tuesday (23/5), a supervisor of UMY men’s volleyball team M. Sobar, S.EI., M.Sc. appreciated the team. “We admitted that our departure to UPH was to challenge ourselves to compete with volleyball champions in Jakarta and to measure our team’s skill because we had not done it yet. Thus, we did not expect too high,” he expressed.

In the tournament, UMY sent men’s volleyball team and women’s volleyball team. The men’s volleyball team belonged to Group B. Before passing to the final round, UMY was defeated by UNJ with 3-1 in the first match of a preliminary round since the team was tired due to the travel from Yogyakarta to Jakarta. Then, the team won two next games beating University of Budi Luhur and UPH. In a semifinal round, the team knocked out Unpad men’s volleyball team with 3-0 and passed the final. On the other hand, UMY women’s volleyball team did not passed from the preliminary round.

Sobar told that UMY volley teams begin to be taken into account in national tournaments. “We have nationally qualified volleyball players such as Danu Rekza Purnama, Ditya  Bagus Pradana, and Fauzi. Indeed, they have ever joined professional clubs. Before this tournament, we won volley competitions at UMG in 2015 and at UMP in 2016,” he mentioned.

After the tournament, his parties will always do evaluation to participate in other tournaments. Sobar expected that UMY volley teams can be a professional club so that they can gain more achievements. “We have already evaluated, and we will improve ourselves to prepare for upcoming tournaments. We will strengthen the team through accepting prospective students having non-academic achievements so that there will be regeneration. We will also propose the improvement of a volleyball court at UMY. For the long-term plan, we will be a professional club so that we can join Proliga and obtain a lot of experiences in more championships.