Results from elimination finals.
11th September 2022
State League Reserves Women lost to Reds.
SLRW played Reds today in a thriller match but ended up going down 3-0. The first set was close with the ladies fighting until to the death with some heat and nerves to battle but ultimately lost the set 25-27. Second set came and the ladies were a little fatigued and struggled to connect the first pass to the setter which resulted in reds going on a big run which they could not recover from with the set ending at 14-25. Third set was very much like the second with a rough patch at the beginning due to poor passing but a bit of fight and desperation at end the girls had a bit of life with long rallies but Reds stayed on top of them and ended up losing the third 14-25 and losing outright 0-3. The girls had a wonderful season but just couldn’t get it done with two big efforts back to back against tough teams.
Division Two Women lost to UWA
Defeated ECU to go to the Grand Final.
Grand Final Here We Come!!!! Big 5 set win over ECU this morning at Loftus in an epic 2hr 20 minute game.
We were ready to go this week after a disappointing loss in the semi final last week. Our mental preparation for the game was much stronger and more focused this week and it showed on court with nerves of steel during long rallies and fantastic serving throughout the match.
The first set was very tight and we lost it 22-25. With 19 kills/aces in the first set we came out showing what we had, but we just made too many errors particularly at the crucial end of the set allowing ECU to get over the line first. We were here to play though and took the second set 25-17. Although we started the second set a bit shaky with a run of errors, you could see the positive mental resolve of the team and from 10-7 down we only made two more unforced errors this set. A fantastic serving run from Charisse closed out the second set 25-17.
The third set started a little shaky again with the first 3 points going ECU's way with unforced errors.
We lost the third set 20-25 with lots of outright kills and aces coming from our side of the court, but ECU defended extremely well and got the ball back a lot. Most of the balls coming back to us were freeballs and ECU were relying on us to make the error. Some service errors again crept in at high pressure times when ECU had hit the 20s and after side out volleyball throughout the middle of the set, ECU took the third set.
At 2 sets to 1 down, the girls decided not to let the pressure get to them and it showed. We changed up the rotation and it took a couple of points to settle, but from then on our girls only looked like winning. Smart setting choices, great passing, consistent hitting, four aces and only one service error really started to take the wind out of ECU's sails and we took the set 25-18.
Going into the fifth set we had all the momentum and always looked in control. We took the set 15-7 as we executed our game plan and played with confidence.
It has been fabulous to see these girls overcome their disappointment of last week and come out firing for this game. That is the sign of a great team.
Our serving and passing were fantastic today and allowed us to play our best volleyball of the year. I was so happy to see all the work we have done on trust and communication displayed on the court today. Well done girls. Let's give it all we've got in the GF next week.