Greek Australian students settled their university rivalry on the pitch last week in the first ever NUGAS Cup.
The indoor soccer tournament pitted nine universities against each other, with 16 mixed teams entering a group stage to make it to the knockout stage.
It all bottled down to the grand final, between Melbourne University’s MUNGA team 5 and Deakin University’s team 1.
Ellen Kafkas, Thomas Tsiakis, John Liacopoulos, Deniz Genc, Michael Kapri and Elena Zafiris from MUNGA team 5 were crowned the winners after a tough battle.
President of NUGAS Victoria, Tass Sgardelis says the inaugural tourmanet was a success, and heralds all the universities for organising their teams in such a short timeframe.
“We were very happy with it, with the turn out, and it was a great cross section of our organisation, great representation from all the universities,” he told Neos Kosmos.
Held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, players were able to mingle between games, watching competing teams battle in the group stages, then as the stakes got higher in the knock-out stage, more and more players became spectators.
The games were played under normal futsal rules, with draws ending in a golden boot knock-out.
Students came from far and wide to take part, with students from Melbourne Uni, Deakin, La Trobe, RMIT, Victoria Uni, Swinburne, Australian Catholic Uni and Monash’s two clubs.
With the success of the inaugural event, Mr Sgardelis says he’s keen to make it a yearly staple and include summer tournaments.
“We’re having a meeting about extending it out to a summer event, having it as an outdoor event,” he says.
Most of all, what impressed Mr Sgardelis was how easy it was to link all the university Greek clubs and how people were keen to do more as a collective group.
“We want to build on it and do similar events, not even just sporting events but more competitive things,” he says.
“I definitely see room for it to grow.”