Schools cup success
Volleyball in the Wimmera is expected to receive a major boost following success at the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup.
St Brigid’s College year-nine boys team and Murtoa College’s year-nine girls team both had podium finishes at the biggest school sports event in the Southern Hemisphere.
The competition featured 529 teams from 136 schools from across Australia and New Zealand.
History has shown that whenever schools have ultimate success at a schools cup, the flow-on effect the following year is that more students want to experience what the sport has to offer.
The expected boom will follow an underdog gold medal-winning performance by St Brigid’s College year-nine division boys when they defeated the ACT’S Lyneham.
The sport will also gain momentum from a silver medal won by Murtoa College’s year-nine division-three girls. The Murtoa team just could not quite get over a tall Loxton team.
The St Brigid’s boys qualified in second position on the ladder behind Lyneham, which had gone through the qualifying rounds undefeated, including a straight-sets win over St Brigid’s earlier in the rounds.
The boys were lucky to have Matthew Berry join them for tea on the Thursday night before the final. He spoke to them about how his team won honors against a team that was undefeated going into the gold medal match. I think his words helped a lot and gave the boys hope. In a tense and exciting final, St Brigid’s won the first set comfortably, before dropping the second.
In the third set the score was tied at 8-8 before Aidan O’connor served three pressure serves the opposition struggled to pass and the score quickly went to 118. Teams traded points before a Harry Combe crosscourt winner sealed the win 15-12.
Murtoa College’s silver medal added to its previous two gold, silver and bronze medals. The college’s year-nine girls team was strong all week, but couldn’t get past Loxton in the gold medal match.
The girls had a great week and have set themselves up for a bright future.
With volleyball an elective at Murtoa College next year, this group of girls will only get stronger. The future looks bright not just for Murtoa and St Brigid’s, but the sport in general.