SUNRAYSIA representative volleyball teams returned from the Country Championships in Bendigo with their best ever result, collecting four medals across five divisions.
Held from June 6 to 9 at the Red Energy Arena, the tournament saw Sunraysia’s sides face off against some off the state’s strongest volleyball outfits.
The Division One and Two men’s teams both reached their respective grand finals claiming silvers, while the division three squad picked up bronze.
The women’s players in Division Two also racked up silver in another tight final contest as those in the third division narrowly missed out on a medal match by less than one per cent in the pool stage preventing them from progressing to the playoffs.
“It’s our biggest medal haul at the Country Championships to date,” said Sunraysia Volleyball Club secretary Matt Wilkes.
“Volleyball in Sunraysia is extremely strong and it’s going from strength to strength.
“You can see it in our juniors right through to our Division One men, we’re performing very well.”
After a competitive gold medal contest, Sunraysia’s Division One men’s took La Trobe Valley to five sets, just conceding for the silver in a long back and forth affair as their opposition edged the final frame 15-13.
In the bracket ranked below, Sunraysia men’s progressed through to the tournament closing match as well after a draining five set semi-final victory against Warrnambool earlier on the same day.
Fatigue then contributed to them ultimately settling for silver in a straight-sets defeat to Ballarat.
“Some of the teams went further than we expected just from how hard they went,” Mr Wilkes said.
“To turn it into gold is just more of the same preparation, keep playing and obviously continue building our camaraderie.”
The women’s Division Two Sunraysia side also posted impressive performances to fight for the gold medal after a four set triumph over La Trobe Valley in their penultimate championship match.
They proceeded to go up against a formidable South Gippsland in a three sets defeat, who were the team to beat in the bracket from the first serve of the tournament.
The men in Division Three went undefeated through their pool stage but fell to Macedon Ranges in a tense match which saw them go down in five sets, however, recovered aptly to pick up bronze and add to the medal tally.
The women’s team in the Third Division agonisingly missed out on progressing by fractions of points.
“They had a pretty tough pool, but they did really well too as they represented our club fantastically,” Mr Wilkes said.
The four and a half hour trip down south was a monumental success for Sunraysia volleyball and the product of effective preparation.
Trials were held nine weeks prior to the championships with eligibility limited to Sunraysia’s top tier players due to the high level of internal competition.
Mr Wilkes said each squad then trained intensively for six weeks as full teams.
“Only our A Grade players were eligible for trials this year due to the number of members we have, so we sent only our best players, and they represented the entire community very well,” he said.
“Great coaches, great players, good captain selections and lots of training is what got them the results.”
The crop of talented squad members within these Sunraysia squads has been ever present with Dylan Lucchesi recently being selected in the Australian national colleges team competing at the FISU World University Games in Berlin, Germany next month.
Teammate Kade Zrna has also been named in the under 23 men’s Victoria state team.
Post-Championships Luchessi and Zrna were named in the tournament’s All Star Sevens for Division one with Zrna also being awarded the best setter in his division.
Kirsty Knight in Division Two women’s and Will Price in the Division Two men’s were other Sunraysia players named in the All Star teams.
“Everyone behaved amazingly and had each other’s back,” said Mr Wilkes.
“If players weren’t on court, they were watching another Sunraysia team.
“You looked around and saw members cheering on their teammates, it was great to see the camaraderie as rather than play against each other for once, they played with each other, which was nice.”
“Golds are not far away as last year we got one, this year we came close in a few, but with the juniors stepping up and strength of our programs, I think we’re heading in the right direction to clean sweep golds in the future.”
