AVL Finals Results

The 2006 Australian Volleyball League (AVL) finals were held at Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre last weekend with the top 8 teams (4 men and 4 woman) in Australia playing off for the gold medal. And, with an exciting finish to the season, the Uni Blues woman’s team finished 4th on the ladder, qualifying them for the finals!

In their semi-final against Sydney Khumo Lions (top of the ladder) on Saturday (2nd December), the Uni Blues woman seemed out of sorts and dropped the first two sets. The team came out firing and won third set easily, showing the form that got them into the finals but could not sustain it into the fourth set and ended up loosing 3:1.

On Sunday (3rd December) Uni Blues got off to a great start UST in the bronze medal play-off. The won the first set and were leading most for much of the second set until UTS regrouped and came back to win the second 26-24. Once again Uni Blues got themselves into a strong position towards the end of the third set but once again some big hitting from UST swung the momentum and they came away with the set.

Uni Blues dug deep in the fourth set with some excellent hitting and blocking, they played some of their best volleyball for the weekend and won the set 25-17. Despite an early 3-0 lead in the fifth set, strong blocking from UTS quickly halted the Uni Blues attack, particularly through the middle. Although they fought hard to the last point Uni Blues lost the match 3:2 and finished the season in 4th.

Despite the disappointment of the finals series, congratulations must go out to the woman’s team for finishing 4th in their first AVL season as “Uni Blues”. Thanks should also be extended to all those involved in making AVL happen for Uni Blues; the committee, team managers, players (men and woman), volunteers, supporters and of course Melbourne and Monash Universities.