U16 Boys Div.2 at National Schools Volleyball Cup
Our team seemed to have been prepared well by the coach, Jed Flavel, and the players were looking forward to the week of competition.
Our first match against Brighton indicated how easily our players were challenged by a well drilled and confident opponent. This shook our confidence and the poor performance was to carry on into our next match against Ipswich, a match that served to provide us with a “wake-up call”, that we needed to attack more consistently and scramble to keep the rallies going.
The turnaround occurred in our third game against Mt. Scopus, where we showed more desperation to win in 3 sets. Three games on the first day of competition with 2 duties was a heavy workload, but the team showed they could match it with others in our pool. Standout players in each game included Max Allison, Tom Matheson and Carter YinChen.
Day 2 had us playing Caulfield and St. Joseph, teams we defeated in straight sets. Significant improvers were Treye Rivas-Hatchard and Lewis Whiley-Smith. Officiating other teams matches allowed the players to check out the opponents’ style and this was beneficial in our planning. We came third in our pool and this meant we would now aim for a top 10 finish out of 23 teams.
On Day 3, our first cross pool match was against East Murray, where we played disappointingly to lose in 2 sets. This only served to motivate the team to play with more energy and we defeated Bendigo 2-1. Our better players included Maurice Fearenside and Tom Matheson.
A loss to Sydney was disappointing because the players played aggressively, but were simply overpowered. Adam Kitto produced an outstanding effort with his work in attack.
Defeating Renmark on Day 4 gave the players confidence to finish the tournament on a positive note by aiming for 9th position, if we could overcome East Murray. Carter once again proved invaluable on court, through his all round contribution throughout the 3 sets.
Our final match against East Murray was to be the first time during the week where we had a chance to play against a team that previously defeated us. It must have meant something to the players, because half way through the first set when Lewis was rotated onto the court, his powerful serving was supported by enthusiastic team mates and the opposition noticeably lost confidence.
The straight sets win vindicated our belief that we were better than our final position of 9th showed. Lewis had the most significant impact on this match and was a worthy recipient of one of the team awards. Tom was another award winner. Chris Papaconstantinou was a consistent performer throughout the tournament and James Stevens–Dewilde saved his best performance for the last game.
Overall , the performance of the coach and players was pleasing and one could only wonder how much better we could have done, had we not been disrupted by the ill-health of 3 of the players at various times during the week. The 3 Year 8 lads all performed admirably.
I congratulate the team on representing themselves and the school so well throughout the tournament.
George Evreniadis
Manager