Pictures and Story by Lai Jun Wei. © Red Sports
Choa Chu Kang Sports Hall, Monday, January 21, 2008 – Nanyang Girls’ just edged out Unity Secondary 27-25, 25-20 in a B Division Girls West Zone Volleyball game earlier this week.
It was no walk in the park for Nanyang as Unity proved to be a formidable opponent. The first set started off with both teams trading points and keeping each other in sight. Unity picked up valuable points through mistakes by Nanyang and also defended well against the latter’s spikes. Matters got tense in the first set when Hazel of Nanyang served into the net at 24-22. This gave Clarissa of Unity an opportunity to win a point for her team to reduce the deficit to 23-24. Another good serve by Unity brought the game into deuce at 24-24 which led to a Nanyang time out. Upon resumption of the game, Unity went ahead at 25-24 but Nanyang fought back to win a point to make it another deuce at 25-25. All hopes then rested on the shoulders of Michelle of Nanyang as she served for a crucial point. Her seemingly harmless underhand serve earned a point when Unity failed to return the ball. Serving for the match, Michelle sent the ball to the Unity side who committed a foul with a net touch, giving Nanyang first set 27-25 amidst cheers from the Nanyang bench. There was confusion on the Unity side as did not see why the referee called for the foul but the score remained unchanged.
The second set was equally as nerve-wracking. Unity put up a great fight against Nanyang to try and force the game into a rubber set. Nanyang, on the other hand, tried to cut down on their errors and started playing safe. Several points were won after long rallies when either side blundered. The Nanyang girls seemed to be calmer than in the first set as they bounced out to a 15-6 lead. However, Unity did not give up and fought back, closing in on Nanyang as they gained valuable points as their supporters cheered them on from the sidelines.
Nanyang finally survived the fightback and won the second set 25-20, much to the relief of the Nanyang bench. Despite having lost this match, the Unity girls can definitely hold their heads up high at having put up such a great fight.
Nanyang now face Shuqun in a crucial match on Wednesday. Should either team win, it would most likely earn the team a spot in the semi-finals. Good luck to both teams!
Final score: 2-0 (27-25, 25-20)
More pictures in the gallery.
Editor's note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates, or if we've got the names wrong, let us know and we'll update the captions. Thanks.
Actually, I’m not so sure. I can’t really tell cos the pic’s pretty small.
Anyway, thanks for the article!
The player in the first photo is called Grace! 😀
JIAYOU NYVB! you guys rule! (:
USS #1 Amirah
USS #12 Wei Feng