A “surreal” championship triumph has ended a two-decade wait for national success for a Bay of Plenty volleyball club.

The Tauranga Volleyball Club Tigers men’s team claimed the Volleyball New Zealand National Club Championship title on October 10.

It marked the club’s first national men’s title since 2003.

The team claimed a straight-sets victory in the final over the Shirley Silverbacks, a team they had beaten in five sets during pool play.

Head coach Mike Watson, who has been involved with the club since 2008, said being “connected” was the team’s main focus in working towards the championship win.

“Even though we potentially had the best team on paper, translating that to victories on the court is another thing.”

He said as the tournament went on, the team just kept getting “better and better”.

“It was just about seeing what we could improve on and just continuing to try and push the envelope a little bit.”

Watson told NZME the team predominantly comprised beach volleyball players who had come together to play indoor.

He said they were all just “really good mates” who had known each other for a long time, which helped with the group’s cohesion.

“That’s the main thing, we’ve all known each other for ages so that’s been the catalyst.”

Watson said the group had a clear plan for the national tournament, playing their style of volleyball, “which is Tigers volleyball”.

“Everything kind of went exactly to plan, and that almost never happens in sport, so looking back I was thinking that couldn’t have gone any better for us, the win was surreal.

“We didn’t have to do anything extraordinary, we just had to go out there and be ourselves and we’d take care of business.”

The Tauranga Tigers have won the club’s first national men’s title since 2003. Photo / Volleyball New Zealand

Team captain Griffin Muller said the team was a “full cohesive unit”, which helped on the court.

“We were getting better and better as the tournament progressed and we felt like we really hit our stride through the semi and then into the final, we felt good.”

He said what made the group special was how much the players enjoyed themselves and the style of volleyball they played.

“Winning’s always enjoyable but you’ve just got to find the best ways to win and absolutely go for it.”

Vice-captain Brad Fuller said the opening game against reigning Christchurch champions Shirley was when he realised the team had what it took to be victorious the tournament.

“Winning that game kind of solidified in our minds that we were now the top team, everyone was looking at us after that game.”

The Tauranga side met Shirley again in the final, where Fuller said his team “came to play” and delivered their best performance of the tournament.

“We actually just balled out, we’d won the first two sets, and were winning the third by a considerable margin, the game’s not over until it’s over but by that stage we figured out we were getting the win.

“We were going to get the national championship title.”

He said winning was “surreal” and everyone was on “cloud nine”.

“I’ve given indoor club champs numerous goes, and I know how hard it is to get a national championship title, you have to sacrifice a lot, but this just makes it worth it.”

Kaitlyn Morrell is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.