The second week of State Volleyball League saw a revised draw and some tough games for the UTS teams. A quick run down from each team follows. There will now be a couple of weeks off while National Juniors is played, which will give the teams some time for some extra training and fine tuning.
Men’s Honours (from Morky)
The UTS honours Men took on a determined Baulko team on Sunday. In what proved to be a tough encounter, UTS managed to scrape through with a 3:1 win
UTS was led by experienced (old) setter Keith “K-Suck” Suckling & some amazing defence by Doug “D-Skin” Skinner & Dave “D-Bo” Boettiger (who would have thought?)
Coach Morky was impressed with Gregor “G-Sal” Salvin, who managed to play the perfect roll shot – something that had been practiced in the previous weeks (so he was paying attention!)
Captain Rob “R-Fleur” Fleury, was quoted at the end of the game as saying “Choice Bro”.
Womens Honours (from Caroline)
In round 2 of the SVL season the honours girls played Sydney Uni, in a tight match resulting in a loss for the girls, 2-3. With only 7 players this week due to overseas travel. the team welcomed back their captain Wendy Edwards onto the court after a series of injuries. The first set came with UTS wiping Sydney Uni of the court, but the girls weren’t ready for the fired up players on the other side of the net when they took the court for the second set. Although the loss the girls still played well considering there lack of team mates with great passing by the libero Gabes, actuate sets from Anna and kill hits form the outside hitter Carrie.
Div1 Men Team 1 (from Nithin)
Week 2 saw Div 1 UTS1 play against the tardy Korean team who stepped down from honours divison. Their 6th player barely managed to make it on to the court as the refs whistle blew. Set 1 started strong with UTS having the lead most of the the way, except a few errors towards the end and a loss. Set 2 with new found vigor and great teamwork took the win, Set 3 and 4 very close games but ended in a loss. Highlights – great serving by Alex and Nith. Good attacks through the middle by Alvin. Future focus on back court communication and serve reception.
Div 1 Men Team 2 (from George)
Round 2 saw us play in freezing ice cold conditions against Baulkham Hills Colts. Given the international cast in our team, we have to make allowances for frequent overseas travel, so we welcomed 2 new players to our team this week, Luke (x-Honours Team) and Nigel who stands at 2.3 metres tall! Nigel passed the induction test by wearing Bruna’s size 8 playing top without any complaints and managed to run a few great quick plays thru the middle. Cris arrived just as the scorer was crossing names off the sheet, and this meant Tony had no choice but to read the riot act to everyone regarding punctuality. Result: 3-0 WIN UTS2.
Div 1 Women (from Jo)
Our team played our arch rivals Baulkham Hills in round 2 of SVL this week. Missing a few players meant that for the 2nd week in a row had to get Danni Rogerson out of retirement as well as borrow the honours Libero, Gabes. In a close match that should have been over in 4 sets, we eventually came away with the win 3 sets to 2. A great start to our SVL campaign with 2 wins from 2 matches.
Div 1 Santa Sabina 1 (from Nam)
The young UTSSS1 team proved they are more than capable in the Women’s Division 1 competition beating defending champions Manly 3-1. Consisting of only junior players from feeder School Santa Sabina College, UTSSS1 played with maturity and discipline. The team stuck to their game plan and played with a positive attitude throughout the match. The 1st set was a seesaw ride with both teams going point for point but UTS were able to finish off the set with some aggressive serving 25-21. A poor start with problems in the passing line had UTS trailing throughout the 2nd set and going down 13-25. After some stern words from the coach, the team came back out firing in the third set. Once again aggressive serving was the key which allowed UTS to tactically defend against Manly and counter attack effectively. Though the final score was close 25-23, UTS were always in control of the set. With confidence the youngsters started the 4th set well finding rhythm in both defence and attack. Blocking and hitting aggressively, the girls were in total control of the game winning the final set 25-16.
“It was good to see the girls not play like a bunch of princesses” quoted the happy coach at the end of the day.
UTS Volleyball Club 
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