Yes, yes it is that time of the year again. It is one of the biggest nights on the South Adelaide Volleyball Club social calendar. It's time to start brushing up on your general knowledge, saving up for the silent auctions, practicing your coin sliding skills and getting your mates together to form a table of 8-10 people.
Date: Saturday the19th May 2012
Time: 7pm for a 7.30pm Start
Where: Goodwood Community Centre, Rosa Street, Goodwood
Cost: $10 Entry
What to bring: Nibbles
What is available: Beer, Wine, Ready To Drink Cans, Soft Drinks, Water + Tea and Coffee
Please note that due to our liquor licence you can't bring your own alcohol..
Table bookings can be made by calling Leon Jacobsen on 0401 136 917 or by emailing him at leon.jacobsen@hotmail.com
Tables fill fast so please get in quick…
Hope to see you all there!
Thanks to Physio Action SA
After 2 years of support South Adelaide Volleyball Club wanted to thank Josh Scott at Physio Action SA for his commitment and support to the Club. Josh has worked tirelessly to treat athletes over that time, attended numerous training sessions and sponsor the Club even though the Business has only been running a short time. Below is a token of the Club's appreciation which was presented to Josh on December 31st 2011.
Josh Scott owner of Physio Action SA being presented the framed print with SAVC President Alex Moncrieff
Remember if you need any treatment please make an appointment and remember to show your South Membership card. Also check out their new website - http://physioactionsa.com.au/
Thanks also to Omega Picture Frames at Thebarton for all the great work they have done for the Club over the last few years. Check them out - http://www.omegapictureframes.com.au/
2011 Warrnambool Annual Seaside Tournament
On the Adelaide Cup Long Weekend, South Adelaide Volleyball Club made the 7 hour drive to Warrnambool for the Annual Seaside Volleyball which is hosted by the Warrnambool Volleyball Association. This year saw 3 teams entered, Honours Men, Division 1 Women and Division 1 Men. Most cars left early on Friday morning for the trip and had a leisurely trip with a few stops on the way. We arrived at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool around 5pm local time.
Emmanuel College Gymnasium has been our home for 15 years when we travel to the tournament and provides us with the essentials for the tournament such as showers, a roof over our heads and a place to relax and socialise after long days at the stadium. For $5 a night who can really complain! Warrnambool is the cheapest trip that South Adelaide organises and we would like to increase the number of teams in 2012 that attend this great tournament.
Honours Men
This year saw a strong Honours Men's competition featuring Heidelberg, Monash Uni, Melbourne Uni Renegades, Yarra Rangers and the Canberra Heat. The first day saw wins against Canberra Heat and Milton Storm. The boys were looking strong with some great Volleyball played in the first day. The first match saw Scott Roberts take control of the serving with a great string of aces which left the Canberra Heat lads scratching their collective heads in amazement. Late in the second match John Bennett popped a finger which saw him change rolls from a middle player to a designated serving substitute.
Sunday morning was the last of 2 pool matches against Monash and Yarra Rangers respectively. The first game saw a tense match between us and Monash. The first set went the way of Monash and mid way through the second the boys rallied from a small deficit to even the scores up a 24 points a piece. We traded points in a sideout frenzy. Monash was leading 27-26 when Tim "DY" Martin flicked up a back court set to Craig "Max" Donnellan. Max transitioned perfectly and cracked the ball towards middle of the court in position 6. The ball flew straight into the position 6 player's face and promptly out the back of the court. Our boys cheered loudly as Max had saved set point and set us up for a furious finish to see who could claim the last set. As the boys were celebrating the referees pointed to the opposition and awarded Monash the point. 2 linesmen, a net referee and the top referee could not see the ball ricochet of his face and into the back wall. This meant that we lost the match and needed to beat Yarra Rangers in the late morning match.
The boys lost the first even with the full South Adelaide cheers squad perched in the grandstands. The match saw some very average serving from the boys and a lack of double touch calls made by the referee. The second set was snatched by the lads from Yarra. This meant that the cross over matches saw a showdown between us and arch enemy USC Lion. The match started with some very even play. The boys opened up a small gap and maintained it to the end of the set. The second set started with some great play by both sides. A major change in the line up for our boys did nothing to slow down the solid play at the net. The third set was a non event with Lion taking the dead rubber without too much fuss. This led us to play Melbourne Uni Renegades for a final match.
This match left us with a mathematically impossible chance of making the grand final. The boys cruised against the big hitting outside attack of the Renegades and could have potentially beaten them if we had played them when our boys were fresh. Equally most of the successful teams had solid numbers of players and rotated them well through the tournament. Just a heads up for anyone interested in coming along next year…
Division 1 Women
The 2011 trip to Warrnambool saw a vastly different Division 1 Women's team to that which took out the title last year. It was an interesting mix of young new blood, some familiar stalwarts and a couple of returnees from the Volleyball wilderness. Without having so much as met all team members before the tournament started, the girls had a great challenge in front of them playing against some good talent and tremendous experience in the likes of Black Swans, Geelong Phantoms, Heathfield, Monash, Van Diemens, Renegades and Ballarat Phantoms. The team had an early setback with new recruit Rachael Natar unable to attend the tournament due to illness, which left us with just one setter in Meagan "Moogs" Jones.
It seemed as though it might be the longest long weekend of Volleyball in history when the girls started out by losing the first 5 points of the first game against Monash. To their credit, the team pulled themselves together with a dominating display of serving from Bec Pohl and worked well together to produce a 2-1 win. We had a consistent line up which saw the more experienced players work tirelessly over the weekend without a break and a few of the young girls showing their intent to move their way up at South. Despite another slow start by the girls, the second game proved to be a bit easier for the team after playing a game together already. The girls were able to put away the Ballarat Phantoms in a convincing 3-0 defeat with great contributions from all players. After a long day at the stadium starting with an 8am duty, the girls struggled to maintain focus for their third game at almost 5pm against a very experienced Geelong Phantoms team. We managed to regain some of our composure to take the second set but couldn't carry on with it, finishing with a 2-1 loss. Despite the girls' first loss for the tournament, we were still in good stead going into the crossovers on Sunday, knowing we would probably need to win all 3 games to see ourselves in the Grand Final.
The group was grateful for a more reasonable start on Sunday at 9.15am against the third placed Melbourne Uni Renegades from Pool B. With growing confidence and all players' skills improving with every game we played, the girls showed that their second placing in Pool A was no fluke, taking down the Victorian team 2-1. With some long rallies being played out during this game, Mariah Mannix and Elle Galpin were instrumental in their specialist back court roles along with Rachel Pater, keeping the team in points time and time again. After a sound win, the girls were eager to take on the unfamiliar bottom placed Tasmanian team, Van Diemens. With some encouragement from the South crew, the change of surroundings on a new court was not to deter the group from taking a dominant first set victory, almost doubling the Tasmanians' score. The star of the first set was Game Captain Bec Pohl, who served Van Diemens off the court, giving the team a massive lead early on. Bec continued her display of excellence throughout the game with her best demonstration of back-court hitting yet. Our senior setter Meagan "Moogs" Jones fed all hitters well and led the team with her tenacious defensive skills. We also saw some very encouraging efforts by young guns Cherise Boothey and Megan Hulbert through the middle, both playing in their first tournament for South Adelaide. Along with Tess McDuie, they proved to be a wall at the net against the fairly tall Tasmanian team and no doubt will turn some heads at State League this year. After a comfortable win against Van Diemens, the girls had 2 ½ hours before the all important clash against the impressive Black Swans which would almost certainly determine which team would earn a Grand Final spot. This was a very even game which saw both teams trading strings of points at a time. The consistency and power of the Black Swans proved too much for the South girls though, losing narrowly in each set. Again this game provided excellent experience for the group and new mum and Game Captain Cheryl Ann Bennett was ever-reliable, leading the team by example.
Unfortunately with this loss, the girls not only missed out narrowly on a Grand Final appearance, but also got lobbed with the dreaded Monday duty. The older girls stayed behind to do the Grand Final duty, leaving for home early afternoon well after the rest of the South crew headed off on their journey. Overall the weekend was a resounding success for the girls' side of the club with a few players getting some valuable touches ahead of State League and Arafura and our debutants receiving invaluable experience in a tournament atmosphere. The whole group put in a tremendous effort over the 6 games, but special credit should go to Bec Pohl, Rachel Pater, Meagan Jones and most of all, Cheryl Ann Bennett who not only played her first game since Arafura 2009 and having her first child, but also played without rest over the weekend. A special thank you to Mr and Mrs Hulbert who chaperoned Megan and Mariah for the weekend and cheered the girls on. Last but not least, thank you to Lucas Head who helped drive the team around all weekend and stayed behind to make sure we all got home safely after the duty. It was fantastic to see a fairly inexperienced team achieve such a great result; the improvement and bonding in the team over the tournament was evident for all to see.
Division 1 Men
The Division 1 Men had a daunting task as they were technically defending last year's grand final win. It should be mentioned that it was a completely different line up to that of 2010. The competition saw Division 1 stalwarts Spotty Dogs, Monash, Q Redbacks all back for the tournament. Also in the mix was Horsham, Letrobe and the boys played their hearts out all weekend regardless of what the opposition threw at them. The boys were captained by Ashley "Lunchbox" LePoidevin who played through the middle with Michael "Gary" Bonser for the whole tournament. Chad continued the traditional SA verses Vic rivalry with a duty team asking him to not yell during the serve of opposition players. He was asked not to yell "hopper" while the server was performing a jump serve. Apparently it is not allowed in Victoria. Chad being a quick witted lad he changed the word to "Rice Crispies", but that was frowned upon too. Wombat had a crack at playing Libero and saw how the other half lives. Stewart Nancarrow made a triumphant return to playing in Warrnambool and tested his knees playing the majority of the weekend. Pete Natar played as a passer hitter for the whole weekend and produced a magical set that mystified everyone playing and watching. Tyson McLeod gained a new nickname and has written a letter of complaint to a Warrnambool restaurant. Luke Morrison made his debut and only decided to make the trip at 7.00pm on the Thursday night before the tournament. Although the boys didn't win a game they pushed every team in most sets. The dramatic improvement was easy to see with the boys starting to gel together on Sunday.
Thanks to all the members who attended in 2011. A special thanks to Scott Roberts who travelled all the way from the other side of Melbourne. Also to John and Cheryl Ann Bennett who popped across from Mt Gambier with 1year old Bailey. Bailey was a source of entertainment all weekend for the South Crew. Thank you to Emmanuel College for letting us stay in their Gymnasium. Lastly thanks to Alex Moncrieff, Leon Jacobsen and John Howard for coaching across the weekend. From all accounts everyone had a good time and bring on Warrnambool 2012….
