By Phua Guan Zhi Deron (Boys’ Captain), Ramalingam Ragaviga (Girls’ Captain), Nidhesh Madhavan (Boys’ Vice-Captain), Oh Kai Jie (Girls’ Vice-Captain)

Adapted from 2025 CCA Preview.
 
The ball is rolled to the captain, clad in green, black and white. He picks it up. Inhale. Exhale. He scans the opposition defence for weaknesses in their reception. Target spotted. Far. Right. Corner. 

The crowd begins to die down, every audience member holding their breath in anticipation for the serve to come. The captain shrugs. Now is not the time to feel the pressure. 

With a swift flick of his wrist, he launches the ball high into the air. A perfect toss. He begins his approach. With the first step, he swings his arms back as far as possible. Every bit of momentum is needed here. With the second step, he lunges forward, driving his arms up with all his might. Finally, the third step. Killing all forward momentum, he soars upwards, eyes still locked onto the ball – it’s now or never.  

His arms come down like a whip, his wrist snapping to apply as much topspin on the ball as possible. His body twists and his legs straighten, and the ball shoots over the net and onto the other side of the court. 

Everyone – players, judges, spectators alike – watch the ball with bated breath as it flies towards the corner. The opponent receiver moves – but he is too slow. With a resounding thud, the ball lands perfectly within the court. A sublime service ace. 

BEEEP!  

The referee blows the whistle and the crowd erupts. Players gather and cheer “RAFFLES, ACE!” in unison, and the members of the opposing team can only look dejectedly at each other.  

YOU, too, can be part of the action in Raffles Volleyball. 

This is volleyball, a game of “play creation”, the maximum utilisation of three touches—receive, set, hit—before it has to be sent over the net. The game only starts when a serve is hit from behind the service line, and a point is scored when the ball falls within the 9m x 18m court.  

2 teams. 6 players each. All ready to dive to save the ball from touching the ground.  

Technicalities aside, volleyball is a sport that requires communication, discipline and grit. In an intense game ranging from 3-5 sets of 25 points, matches can go over an hour long with little rest in between.  

Players need to be able to communicate with their teammates and work well under pressure. Skilful plays, strength and endurance will provide the upper hand in a fast-paced, high-stakes competition, making each point scored satisfying.   

“Raffles, ace, ace, ace!”  

This is Raffles Volleyball. We start training right with our signature team cheer to boost our adrenaline before diving into warm-ups and physical training. This involves a circuit of exercises curated by our coaches that build up our strength and skills, followed by hitting practice. as well as a time for peppering (we’re not talking cooking here…) 

Our training regime is largely conducted around ball drills for us to learn and practise a variety of techniques such as hitting, digging and service receives. These help us to focus on engaging in specific movements and letting our bodies memorise the motions so that we can apply them effortlessly during a game. And in the last hour, to gain match experience and put our training to the test, we have practice matches!  

To reward ourselves after a long day at school and training, we occasionally head out for a batch dinner at Junction 8!  

Our training sessions are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00pm-8:00pm at the Indoor Basketball Courts. Leading up to competition season, for students participating in the National School Games (NSG) team, we have additional training on Saturday mornings from January to May, 9:00am-12:00pm at the Indoor Sports Hall.   

There are many milestones and events you can look forward to by being a member of Raffles Volleyball, otherwise affectionately known as RIVB.  

Besides the annual Volleyball “A” Division National School Games (NSG), which typically occurs in Term 2, in collaboration with the Students’ Council, we have Team Raffles Games (TRG) for schoolmates of various houses to engage in inter-house competitions in a game of modified volleyball.  

You can also look forward to the Old Rafflesians’ League (ORL), an annual event where past batches of RIVB members are invited back for a friendly competition, which is typically held in Term 1 each year.  

There are other bonding activities and (overnight) camps to look forward to as well! 

Here at Raffles Volleyball, the team becomes your family, the ball becomes your best friend, and CCA becomes a place where core memories and lasting friendships are forged. 

For updates on the RIVB experience, you can find us on Instagram @raffles_volleyball.  

If this is an experience you can’t bear to miss out on, bring your passion and energy to our trials! We’ll be glad to have you in our volleyball family!