Renegades Win at Morwell
On an enjoyable weekend with plenty of off-court fun, the Renegades men won Division 1 (there were no Honours divisions) and the women were runners-up in Division 1 at Morwell, October 14-15.
With several players away at the Australian University Games which followed straight on after the Sydney Olympics, we'd only had a couple of trainings together before the weekend's tournament. So, the plan had been just to have a relaxing, fun weekend of volleyball with results not being taken too seriously. However, competitive sport always brings out players' fighting spirit.
The men faced Monbulk first up who we'd expected to be our main competition. There was a good feeling in the Reds team and lots of positive communication on court which led to a 3-0 win. The second match against Bairnsdale is best forgotten - too many errors, too many people blaming others for their mistakes - we lost 1-3. The good feeling within our side was back for the third match against Camberwell who hadn't endeared themselves to us with their atrocious refereeing performance during our earlier game. We kept our game error-free for an easy 3-0 thumping which put us top of our pool for Sunday's semifinal. After a big night partying, Sunday morning saw us again come up against fourth place Camberwell and we comfortably won our way through to the grand final against Bairnsdale who'd had something of an upset win over a depleated Monbulk. There was no repeat of Saturday's lapse and we played some excellent volleyball to win the tournament 3-0...the first Renegades victory for a while.
The women also entered the tournament with a mixed team that hadn't played together. Several of the Renegades men's team went into the weekend with niggling injuries, but the women soon had worse problems with outside hitter Space injurying her knee and their setter, Tene, popping her shoulder. Along with the usual niggling injuries it left the team with some big hurdles. However, the team stepped up with some great performances and a close shave 1-1 draw (61 minute time limit on the women's matches) on Sunday morning to go into the grand final against Heidelberg. In a see-sawing match, the teams traded sets into the fifth. Heidelberg took an early lead in the fifth and despite a spirited comeback, Renegades had to settle for the runners-up trophy, losing 11-15 in the last set.
It had been a great weekend with teams made up of players from all divisions, positive play, spectators chanting support and fun and frivolity after the matches.