The Samoa Volleyball Federation's 2023 Teuila Festival Volleyball Tournament kicked off on Saturday and will run for the whole week before concluding this weekend. 

The Samoa Volleyball Federation President, Leute Faamanu Mataipule said the tournament coincides with the Teuila Festival and is part of their annual events held every year as an international game to bolster the skill, experience and talent of the local volleyball clubs.

Volleyball teams from Tutuila in American Samoa, New Zealand, and other countries are travelling to Samoa to participate and play against local volleyball clubs. She then placed an emphasis on the opportunity this presents for the local talent in Samoa and for the sport's continued development.

 "Another important role that this tournament plays is towards preparations made for the Pacific Games later this year. For the men's division they have scheduled their games for this coming Thursday between the training squad for Samoa and a team from American Samoa," said Leute. "The women's training squad have been reallocated to their volleyball clubs so as to improve on their skills leading up to the Pacific Games."

The Teuila Festival Volleyball Tournament is divided into three divisions: men's, women's and the Faafafine's (queens) division.

On Monday only the men's and queen's divisions took to the courts with more than 30 teams for the men's division, 12 for the women's division, and six teams for the Faaafafine division.

Leute said the Pacific Games team have already been preparing for the last three to four months. After the trials, they selected athletes from Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia to make up the team that will be representing Samoa in Solomon Island at the end of the year.