Although Alexis Lim is about to write a dissertation, she’s most looking forward to the games and touring with her volleyball team.
As a Wolfpack captain, Mondays and Fridays are for practice, and Wednesdays are matchdays. But Alexis Lim, when asked where she spends the most time at, laughs and says, “Okay, CityBar?”
“When it comes to socialising it’s CityBar, [but] I spend a lot of time at CitySport as well.” Being on a sports team requires more than just showing up to practice, so you might also see her hitting the gym or a spin class.
Outside the court, Lim is a third-year CASS student doing business studies. It’s her second year captaining the volleyball team, but her coursework and dissertation don’t scare her off. “I trust my co-captain that when I’m really busy, she’ll cover for me. She’ll be more than happy to help out and [it’s the] same way around.”
That’s the essence of team spirit, which is stronger now than the previous season. “Last year was a bit difficult because the team wasn’t so close,” says Lim. “This year we’re really trying to make an effort to make sure we’re all there for each other.”
One of Lim’s tasks as captain is organising socials, whether it’s around the campus or even outside of London. Last April, she and four other players went for the first time on a beach volleyball tour to Portugal.
“I hope this is something that will continue even after I leave because it really bonded the five of us,” she says, adding that this year, more teammates are about to join.
But Portugal didn’t just benefit in stronger friendship bonds. Lim found the trip so inspiring that she continued practising the sister discipline. The team co-captain spent her summer at home in Singapore, shaping her beach volleyball skills with a local coach. “I feel like beach volleyball overall improves your skills a lot quicker than indoors because you have to do everything between two people.”
Now that the summer is over, the season has kicked off again. Last year, the girls’ team finished with a win, but unfortunately, they didn’t get promoted to the next division. “I’m really looking forward to hopefully make it to that same stage,” says the middle-blocker. She adds that her big hope is to “move past that stage and get promoted to the Premier League”.
Whether it’s one of their biggest rivals, like King’s College or Southampton University, or an easy win, like the Varsity game against Kingston, the team appreciates every supporter that comes to cheer for them. Yet, so far, most of their spectators are people either from other sports teams like netball, badminton, and hockey, or from the Students’ Union.
Even varsity, despite the big-scale promotion around our university, doesn’t attract that many people. “We’ve been trying to make it more of a university thing, but half of the people don’t really know what varsity is, or who our varsity rivals are, and I think this is something we should improve overall,” says Lim.
“Sports isn’t really a big culture at City, so I do understand that. But I just think it would be a lot more fun if more people came and joined in. It’s a good experience.”