Junior Girls Win State League

The MU Renegades Junior Girls had a convincing win over Southern Cross Fairhills in the Junior State League Grand Final on Saturday, September 18. The team dominated the North-Western division throughout the season, but in Fairhills faced their strongest opponents all year. In an impressive opening, both teams had good defence and were spiking well from outside. The taller Fairhills girls were proving tough at the net as the MU Renegades spikers were forced to tip over and around the imposing block. However, strong, deep serves by the MU Renegades players put Fairhills on the back foot and strong outside spiking by the likes of Gabby and Nicole for Renegades saw them up 2-0. MU Renegades had 20+ spectators cheering and singing from the crowd and by the third set, Fairhills too enjoyed some vocal crowd support. It seemed to help the team as they came back to take the third. But it was to be the MU Renegades team's day, winning the fourth and the match to take home the gold medals.

[img_assist|fid=1499|thumb=0|alt=MU Renegades Junior Girls team with their gold medals. Credit: Will Hore-Lacy|class=image-legacy]
MU Renegades Junior Girls team with their winner's medals.

Earlier in the day, the MU Renegades Division 1 Women faced off against arch rivals Melbourne Falcons in their VVL Grand Final. MU Renegades defeated Falcons in five sets three weeks before during their semi-final encounter. However, Falcons won each of the three matches between the sides during the round robin matches. So, the scene was set for a great final showdown. Both teams started tentatively with many unforced errors, but the Falcons serve was proving difficult for the MU Renegades receivers and the Falcons team took the opening set. MU Renegades came back well to win a close second set and level the match at 1-1 before Falcons took the third. With the MU Renegades team down 14-20 in the fourth set and making error after error to quiet the crowd, it looked as though Falcons would easily go on to win the match. However, MU Renegades would not go down without a fight. They clawed their way back into the set, leveling at 20:20 and bringing the crowd to life as cries of "Go Reds" filled the stadium. Both teams played excellent volleyball, going point for point with strong spiking and tenacious defence. Unfortunately, Falcons came back with strong, consistent spiking to win the set and consign the MU Renegades Div 1 Women to their second consectutive runners-up prize.

[img_assist|fid=1502|thumb=0|alt=MU Renegades Div 1 Women team with their runners-up medals. Credit: Will Hore-Lacy|class=image-legacy]
MU Renegades Division 1 Women's team with their runners-up medals.

In other finals, the Heidelberg Division 1 Men put last year's disappointment of not only losing the grand final but having a serious injury to their setter, Justin Wicking, behind them. They defeated Southern Cross Fairhills (who had defeated Samoa in their preliminary final, Samoa having only just been promoted to Division 1 this season after winning the Division 2 premiership last year) in four tight sets.

And so, the 2004 Victorian Volleyball League and Junior State Leagues come to an end. It was certainly an eventful season with an entire round postponed due to losing the venue and another half round lost due to a burst water main. There were also great positives with new teams such as Samoa continuing to provide lots of colour and excitement and the junior competition building to become an established part of the state league year.

Thank you to the staff at Volleyball Victoria, the referees and the many volunteers that continue to make the Victorian league one of Australia's best. We now look forward to a successful Australian Volleyball League starting in a few weeks.