UTS entered a team in all divisions of the recent Manly Cup 2012 held at Warriewood.
The men’s and women’s Honours teams brought home the gold.
Thanks to Chris Proffitt and his team for a great tournament.
There are a heap of pictures from the weekend here – some more tasteful than others. Team reports will be added very shortly as well.
UTS Men Honours Update – From Morky
An under-strength UTS side went to Manly Cup, determine to play some good volleyball. Unfortunately on Saturday that did not occur, with the team once again showing that they can play just a bad as any opposition.
In the game against the NSW U19’s, a bet was made involving 2 cases of beer and a score-line under 12 in each set. A 25-1 scoreline in the first set (Artem Ipatyev being the disgraced player that gave away a point), followed by 25-12 in the second, saw the UTS coach sweating and tempted to put himself on in order to sabotage the bet. At 12 all in the third set, the coach seemed relaxed and put his jacket back on. Enter the serving of Doug Skinner. At 22-12 the jacket came back off and the sweat re-appeared, but alas, it was short lived as the team made a bunch of errors and the scoreline ended up at 25-20. Day 1 ended with a case of beer and a few laughs and a knowledge that the games on the following day would be much tougher.
Day 2 and a 1:00 start, with Marc “I’m a better middle than Luke” Carroll taking the place of his twin brother Luke “I’m a better setter than Marc” Carroll. Brad “Ha Ha…you want me to play middle?” Leesong also made a return as super sub. The semi final against the NSW U23’s saw UTS pitted against a strong opposition for the first time this year. Although the game was tight, UTS had a comfortable win with a 25-17, 25-20 scoreline.
The final saw UTS playing UNSW in what was tipped to be the game of the Millenium! UTS with their Russian import, Artem “I don’t need to ask my wife” Ipatyev and UNSW with their 6ft5 German import Martin “ich esse deine kinder” Von Deutschland (who had both amassed 600 points in the lead-up games). The outsides were led by Doug “I used to be able to jump 85 cm – until i got fat” Skinner and Michael “but I am French” Jonstomp. Keith “I am sweaty and I smell” Suckling put in a solid setting performance as usual although he did struggle to find Sam “I’m vice captain and you aren’t” Morrison through the middle (yes Sucky, he does jump higher than you and you do need to set him above the height of the net). Jason “I beat my brother’s team” Laffer showed great improvement though out the weekend where as Nam “why am I playing” Pham did not.
Coaching as always was amazing, oh and the score in the final was: UTS def UNSW 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-11)
UTS Women Honours Update – from Wendy
UTS Girls Women’s Honors division entered our first competition for the season in Manly cup in Warrierwood Sports Centre over the weekend of 14 – 15th April 2012.
Entering this competition, as captain had no idea how we were going to perform as team, we entered to have nothing but fun. First time playing together as team, wasn’t much to expect from the girls to perform at their best. We had some new players from juniors coming up to elite level, new international players and old faces. We had bit of shaky start to the competition with a first game against Hills Dragons losing the first set. We got rid of the cob webs as team and started picking up our game, with win in the second and third set. Girls managed to come back with great defense in the back row.
As the day progress we managed to take the win of the next games with great team blocking and defense. By the end of all the games we played on the first day we finished on table 2nd position tied with UNSW and leaders undefeated Sydney Uni girls.
Day two we had nothing but sore bodies, that came with aches and pains. For us to reach the finals we need to beat UNSW. 1st set was tight from point to point but we couldn’t secure it with little errors of serving, which cost us the set. As the Second set came we snatched the set off them like piece of cake with end result of 25 – 6 UNSW, with our dominating attack and massive blocks. Come to the final set we snatched the set away and walked away with smiles and massive grin with relief of making the finals 11 – 8 UNSW.
Finals were tough as we didn’t win against the Sydney Uni girls in the rounds, as they came undefeated in the competition in our pool. We walked on to court with some wise words from our coach Lionel with his French accent “girls all I want is play with pleasure”. 1st set was win from great serving and team defense from the UTS girls with ending result 25 – 14 Sydney Uni. Last set was final decision maker of who are the champions. It was very tight from point to point from both ends of the court, with all the hard work my girls put nothing but sweat and there bodies on the line UTS took out the final set of 25 – 20.
All the hard work that girls have been putting in the trainings we’ve had for the last few months, we still show room for improvement for the next competitions lined up for the year. Awesome talent that the girls showed over the weekend, show why they are in the team. All I can say is I couldn’t ask for better team to captain with great start to the season for our club UTS.
GO Sexy Ladies of University Technology of Sydney
Captain
Wendy Edwards
UTS Men Div 1 Squad Update – From Nithin
Coach – Sucke
Squad – Alberto, Alex, Alvin, Andres, Gino, James, Jarek, Jerome, Lee, Nith
Sat 14th March 2012
Game 1 UTS vs Legend 0-2 (22-25, 19-25)
Considering they took the gold in the tournament, we gave them a run for the money. Special mention, Alvin’s first ever state cup tournament came to crashing end due to a sprained ankle (my bad – Nith).
Game 2 UTS vs UNSW 0-3 (15-25, 17-25, 16-25)
We fought hard against a stronger UNSW. There was a bit of a struggle with postioning on court which was sorted out towards the end.
Game 3 UTS vs Canberra Devils 2-1 (25-19, 25-22, 14-21)
As a team, we weren’t comfortable with eachother on court, which goes to say that communication prior to serves is essential not during play. We went on to win the game but not convincingly.
Sun 15th March 2012
Game 1 UTS vs NSW U/17 1-2 (14-25, 19-25, 12-25) (Quarter Final)
Although we lost the first two sets, came firing back in set 3, the only difference being the improved intensity and communication on court. Just goes to show that the potential is there but need a bit more consistency.
Game 2 UTS vs Canberra Devils 2-0 (26-24, 25-21) (7th/8th Playoff)
Set 1 started great taking a big 7 point lead aginst the Devils. we lost a few points due to serve reception errors and the Devils caught up. We won the set 26-24. Set 2 was much better, lots of good cover and scrambles to keep the ball alive.
Overall
A good start to season especially with many new squad members, we have clearly identified the areas that need improvement. Serve reception, improved communication and efficient attacks. Can only get better from here.
Cheers,
Nith
UTS Women Div 1 Update – From Jo
Going into Manly Cup as Division 1 defending champions, it was apparent this was not going to be repeated after Saturdays day of play.
Our first game was against the State U19’s who were fielding what seemed to be half of our UTS honours team. After losing the first 2 sets 25-17 & 25-14, we redeemed ourselves by winning the 3rd set 13-25 hoping this would give us some confidence and momentum going into the next 2 games. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case as in the second game we went down 3 sets to nil against a very strong United team. The last game of the day saw us going up against the host team Manly.
While the Mens Honours team were downing beers on the sidelines, we were in a hard fought battle with last years runners up. At one set a piece it was a more experienced Manly team who prevailed in the end.
Sunday was an early start as our team has the first game at 8am. To the coach Sam Morrison’s surprise, everyone turned up on time and found himself with enough players to field a football team warming up.
A much improved team performance saw the team record their first win of the weekend against UNSW 3 sets to nil and secure themselves a semi final berth! Once again we went down to the United team 2 sets to nil and then lost the bronze medal playoff to U19’s 2 sets to 1.
Overall their was a marked improvement over the weekend with glimpses of brilliance. We have alot to work on and I am sure that coach Sam Morrison will have us all well drilled by SVL start.
Captain Jo
UTS Volleyball Club 
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