Fences, Frenchmen and the SA Open

Melbourne University Renegades, as usual, were the only Victorian club that entered a team in the 2001 South Australian Open held in Adelaide over the Queen's Birthday long weekend, June 9-11. A tournament that Renegades have traditionally done well at in past visits. This year we were also able to catch up with friends we'd made as volunteers at the Sydney Olympics last September - there were plenty of volleyball volunteers from both Melbourne and Adelaide for the Games last year.

With around 740 kilometres to travel each way, the road trip over to Adelaide is always a large part of the weekend. We hired a mini-bus and on Friday night piled all our luggage and ourselves in ready for a long night of driving. With space at a premium, it was fortunate that two players had pulled out during the week, although their on-court skills would have been appreciated.

We eventually made it in to Adelaide around 4am Saturday morning, and with the tournament organisers being generous enough to schedule our first match at 11:20am we were able to get some sleep before the volleyball began. First match of the day was against the AVL team Norwood Bears. We were up 2-1 going in to the fourth set with just 10 minutes remaining (70 minute time limit) and when the siren sounded the Bears had reached 15 points (normally, enough to "win" the set in time-limit matches). We walked off the court disappointed that we'd let the opposition back in the game, but a few minutes later found out that the tournament rules were that 16 points we needed to win a set so the match was ours.

It had been a couple of years since we last defeated South Adelaide and with their former coach, Nick Shashkoff, now back at Renegades, there was a bit of feeling going in to our match against them. Some of our tiredness started to show with plenty of unforced errors and South Adelaide won 2-1.

Our remaining pool match was against Mt Lofty on Sunday. Old rivalries between Victorians and South Australians were on display for all to see as the first referee lacked the confidence to control the match. It become a match that will be talked about on both sides of the state border for years to come. The final outcome was a win to Mt Lofty which left us in the position of having to win both of our final two matches to make the grand final.

The semi-final was again against Mt Lofty and good strong refereeing this time saw that volleyball remained everyone's focus. The match went down to the wire in three tough sets. Unfortunately, it was again Mt Lofty who took the points and eventually made their way through to the grand final on Monday afternoon. For us, it meant we were able to drive home a few hours earlier than expected the next day.

Thanks to John Miller from Monbulk who joined in to play on the weekend. Also thanks to Jake Avent from Division 2 and Samuel Py from Division 1 who both had excellent weekends on court and helped make it a memorable weekend.

One thing's for sure, the Adelaide trips are never boring!