WESTCUP Round III -  August  2009

Once again the premier volleyball tournament run in Sydney (The West Cup, of course) has been run and won. The August 23^rd event held again at the wonderful Emerton Leisure Centre brought hundreds of volleyballers of various levels to the competition. This year we even had our national capital join in with the Dragons making a visit all the way from Canberra. More about them shortly!

This competition was a bit more even between the sexes with 6 teams of men and 6 women teams. Where did all the girls go? Or should I say where did all the men come from?

Now for the line up

6 Mens teams as I said including:-

1. The mighty Dragons from Canberra

2. The St Marys R.H.O.L.

3. The Powerhouse Penrith (My team J)

4. The fresh new Side Out

5. The Mixed Veggies

6. The Wyclisse

One thing to point out was that except for the Dragons and the Wyclisse teams all of the other mens teams consisted of at least 1 or 2 female players. 

6 Women teams including:-

1. The Super Saints team

2. The Penrith girls

3. The Returning Brides Jaguars

4. The Shorties but boy could they jump high.

5. R.H.O.L

6. Attacku

Looking over the team lineups it became fairly obvious that this was going to be a hard fought and evenly matched competition and at the end of the day no one was surprised at how close the competition ended up being.

The early mens games saw the Mighty Canberra Dragons show us that they were a forced to be reckoned with in an impressive yet very close win over last years winners Penrith which is a bit confusing because the same team was named West Ryde last year. I guess a few people moved. The Canberra team won in two very close sets 25:23 and then 25:22.

The Side Out team staring ADAM who has just recently had a new baby (SOOO look out for some pix in the picture gallery) and with a few new faces to the West Cup were very competitive and showed glimpses of brilliance but somehow they just didnt  quite pull it together at the right time. A bit more practice as a team and they may be favourites next time.

Joe's team the Mixed Veggies played really well throughout and it seemed like they were on the way to the finals until they met the Penrith team (Ummm my team by the way). It was a close game but the Penrith team came out on top in a close game.

Wyclisse was a new and young team of boys who put up a very good performance throughout the day. Whilst up against some very strong teams they showed a lot of passion and determination to push the other teams right to the end.

So then it came down to the final. It was last years renamed winners now known as Penrith up against the so far, undefeated Canberra Dragons. Just before the first set, yours truly took a spike to the groin during the warm up and that floored me for a while as the rest of you guys can imagine, but I managed to crawl back up and lined up for the set.

The Penrith team in a very close game once again lost to the dragons 25:23. It seemed one of those so close yet so far days were coming up. However, the second set saw Penrith take a strong lead and even though the dragons fought back strongly with had a 1 set all final on our hands. It was all tied up and both teams huddled on the sideline ready for the final deciding set.

The Penrith team started strong with a few early points but suddenly it was like the dragons switched to overdrive and scored dozen unanswered points to put them in the lead. It was 14:13 with the dragons up to serve. The ball come over the net as the crowd watched silently. A spike from the dragons bounced off the dig and went within a foot of the very high stadium roof and within metres of the back wall. Penrith ran the ball down but unfortunately a miss hit dig saw the end of the game. The crowd cheered the victorious Dragons and also the Penrith team who both put on a game worthy of the Westcup final.

At this point we would like to congratulate Dennis and Junior from the Penrith team who have been asked to represent the Cook Islands in a competition later this year. Very well done guys, we are all proud of you. Dennis wife, Rita, is a valuable member of the WS Volleyball society an also one of the premier Womens players in the competition.  WS Volleyball really appreciates the effort and support of these three wonderful people. 

Now lets not forget the Women teams. Unfortunately I didnt get to see a lot of the womens games so I'll keep this a little brief.

What I can tell you is that the Jaguars did it again. After a few years as runners up they have now made it a second year in a row taking out the West Cup womens final. The Jaguars played some tough games against some very competitive teams but at the end of the day they were favourites and deserved winners again. The close final saw the Shorties as runners up and the Penrith girls taking out third place.

Jiji from the Jaguars team was announced the player of the tournament and obviously played awesome throughout the day.

Joe handed out the trophies to the winners and runners up as well as special awards to Jiji and Jamie before closing the books on the August 2009 West Cup.