2015 Canterbury Junior Volleyball Championships.

STCC won the 2015 term one boys Monday volleyball junior competition but their form coming into the Canterbury competition was down and lacking confidence due to changes in personal and a lack of game time. Seeded 8th going into the championships the team was determined to defend the title they had won in 2014.

The team played two games on Friday, winning one and losing against Burnside which they should have won. As the defending champions they started pool play on Saturday morning needing to win all their games. The squad of nine had been reduced to the minimum of 6 players due to injury and non-availability of players and that put real pressure on those players to deliver and hold their form for the day.

The coaching staff of Albany Peseta, Asoona Iliana and Marty Taylor nurtured the team through the first two games with wins against Rangiora and SBHS. STCC’s third game was against previous champions Riccarton HS and no 2 seed started with RHS winning a close first set. STCC played superbly with the Vaifale boys in awesome setting form with Suilimoni Maka and Tapuloa Uliano spiking fiercely at the net. Winning the second set STCC was full of confidence going into the third set and deservedly won over a distraught RHS team. At the start of each set the boys lined up and sang either the New Zealand or Samoan national anthems.

Day three saw the team initially in disarray with several players late for the warm-up which could have resulted in a default. However playing the eventual tournament winner Aranui Ain the semi-finals the team went down in two sets in a very close competitive game. After a short break the team rallied to crush Riccarton High for the bronze medal after some good serving by Caius Faatill and aggressive ground work by Elisara Vaifale. Elisara Year 9, was rewarded with some outstanding play by being selected for the tournament team.

The team would like to acknowledge the warm support of the parents over the weekend and the impressive mentoring and coaching skills of Albany Peseta and the managerial skills of Julie Maxwell.

Marty Taylor