St. Hilda’s take down Nan Hua Primary

VOLLEYBALL

National Junior U-13 Boys Volleyball Championships 2007
St. Hilda’s Secondary vs Nan Hua Primary
Tuesday, 17th November 2007 at Hougang Sports Hall

Pictures and story by Red Sports volunteer Lai Jun Wei.
Score updates by Red Sports reader Tiong Ting Shan.

Anyone could make a correct guess as to which team would emerge as the winner when the two teams stepped onto the court. St. Hilda’s Secondary (SHS) were meeting Nan Hua Primary (NHP) (Yes! Primary- it’s not a typo) in a Group D match at the National Junior U-13 Volleyball Championships.

SHS showed great sportsmanship by avoiding the Nan Hua players during ‘free spiking’ during the warm-up session. Being significantly larger in size than the NHP players, some around the court were quite concerned over whether the powerful spikes by the SHS players would injure the NHP kids.

The first set saw SHS jump to a 11-0 lead over NHP with player #5 serving 11 straight balls. The NHP players, (whom I assume were rather new to such powerful serves), could hardly receive the serves. However, there were those brave returns, where the NHP players bravely hit the ball back. SHS took up these shots and fired it back at NHP. At the 11-point mark, St Hilda’s #5 faltered on service to give NHP the serve. However, the serve was not successfully converted, with SHS receiving the ball and spiking it to score another point. The service by SHS continued until the 19-point mark when the #9 spiked a ball out of bounds. NHP then managed to make the score 2-19. Yet again, SHS with their greater experience, managed to receive the serve and pound it back at NHP. At the 22-2 mark, SHS’s #7 served into the net to allow NHP to climb to a 22-3 scoreline. However, they could not make much of an impact as SHS took down the set 25-3.

The second set saw SHS continue to dominate with their serves. One wondered whether this game would set a new tournament record as being 1) the fastest game being played or 2) the game with the largest score line at 25-0. However, the 2nd part did not come true as SHS’s service faltered at the 6-0 mark. After the next point which SHS managed to take, #7 spiked the ball into the net to allow NHP to gain a second point to make it 2-7. However, a competition is still a competition. The SHS did not take the game for granted nor underestimate their opponents as they still managed to perform to their standards, with proper spikes and proper serves. They eventually finished the game 25-2.

The sight of the inexperienced NHP kids provided drew laughter from the crowd but supporters cheered hard when the NHP players managed to receive a hard shot or when they manage to score a point. The NHP coach did not lose his temper at his players but instead, smiled at them and encouraged them. We applaude the NHP players for showing courage by participating in this tournament.

Final score: 2-0 (25-3, 25-2)

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. If you have the latest details of the Volleyball Championship, please update readers in the "comments" section. Thanks.