St Hilda's beat Victoria School in U-16 volleyball to move into round 2

Story and pictures By REDintern Koh Yizhe.

Hougang Sports Hall, Sunday, November 2, 2008 – St. Hilda's Secondary (Falcons) made their height difference count as they had little trouble seeing off Victoria School 2-0 (25-16, 25-14) in a Group A match of the 2008 National Under-16 Boys Junior Volleyball Championship. With this win, St. Hilda’s (SHS) secure a place in Round Two as group winners.

Great blocking and killer spikes proved to be the successful combination as the win was very much a walk in the park for SHS. SHS immediately settled into the game and had the best of starts, racing to a three-point lead.

They took advantage of their towering middle spiker and outside hitter to do much of the blocking, effectively silencing the Victoria hitters. Killer spikes were also raining in from their #6 and #11. Victoria were visibly struggling to find a reply.

Victoria did have their moments though. They still kept within striking distance of SHS with some great team play. It was the key for Victoria and it showed when middle spiker #12 finished off an excellent rally with a brilliant tip that slipped past the SHS blockers and into an unguarded area.

However, this was not enough to stop the SHS wave of attacks though. It wasn't long before SHS began to pull away. SHS won their last point when the Victoria #12 hit wide, giving them the set 25-16.

Victoria had a glimmer of hope early in the second set when they briefly took the lead with credit to some unforced errors by SHS. However, it proved to be false hopes for Victoria as it did not take long before SHS took the lead once again at 7-6.

From then on, there was no stopping SHS as they played at their very best and showed why they were the defending champions. SHS unleashed an array of shots over the net into the Victoria court from all angles and Victoria found it extremely hard to cope.

Even the SHS setter go in on the action with a strong spike as the game slipped further away from Victoria. The SHS #11 finally finished off the match with a killer spike to wrap up the second set 25-14.

Final score: 2-0 (25-16, 25-14)