Game 1 v Netherlands Match Report

Abu Dhabi International Women’s Volleyball Tournament
Australia v Netherlands
May 21, 2008

Set 1 – 17-25
Set 2 – 11-25
Set 3 – 12-25

Set 1
Starting Lineup – Maycock, West, Rourke, Brammer, Lealamanua, Bates, Brett(L)

Shaky start from the Aussie girls, but they find some form by the fourth point, with a overpass kill by Rourke, she goes back to serve, 1-3. A huge kill by Brammer from the outside gives the Aussie’s the side out, 2-4. A great side hit from West cause confusion on the Netherlands teams to win Australia’s third point, 3-5. Bates into the attack from the outside gives them another point 4-6. At the first technical time out the Netherlands are in the lead 8-4. And a huge kill from Rourke gives Australia the side out. 5-9. Defensive play from Anna and Rourke gets another kill 6-9. The Netherlands have jumped away from the Australian’s in this set, and now lead 9-16 at the second time out. Australia side out and win the point off a block from West. 11-16. West is working hard through the middle running the quicks, and at 13-17 a double block from West and Rourke shuts down the Netherlands attack. Bates hits a winner from 2 down the line to get to 14-20. Rourke with a huge jump serve and and the block from Brammer on the side to give Australia 17-24. Netherlands win the set 25-17 on a net error.

Set 2
Starting Lineup – Maycock, West, Rourke, Brammer, Lealamanua, Bates, Brett(L)

The Australian’s are serving tough in this second set, but so are the Netherlands. They jump out to 7-4 in front of the Aussies, but a pipe kill and defensive up from Rourke in the back court gets them to with in 1 point, 6-7. Netherlands side out to lead 8-6 at the first technical time out. The Australian’s struggle with their passing allowing the Netherlands to take control of the set serving 5 points in a row to lead at the 2nd technical time out 16-8. Australia is rallying with the Dutch, but find it sifficult to terminate. Bates hits a kill from position 2 to give a side out, but the Dutch roll the spike back into the Australian’s court to no reply. Australia now find themselves down 10-20. Brammer with the kill down the line from 4 gets Australia to 11-20. The Netherlands are just too skilled and are running the show in this set. Through powerful serving and deceptive attacking play, they win the second set 25-11.

Set 3
Starting Lineup – Maycock, Mowen, Rourke, Brammer, Peacock, Lealamanua, Brett(L)

Great serving from Brammer and a huge blocking presence from Rourke in position 2 gives Australia the lead 4-2 in the third set. Peacock just as effective tooling the block to get the return side out, Australia 5-3. A few too many hitting errors from the Australian’s and the tough serve run of 5 serves from the Dutch, and the Australian’s now trail 5-8 at the first technical time out. And much like the second set, the Dutch serve is too much for the Australian recievers. Coach Amand Fielding makes a few subs into the Australian line up, Bertolacci & Watts in, but the Netherlands are just too strong, and they win 25-12 in the third set.

Statistics:

Attack – Team 33% kill 11% ke
Block – Team 6 kills
Passing – Team 1.65 Brett 1.88 Brammer 1.75
Serving – Team 1 ace 5 errors

“We are going to Abu Dhabi”

With those words, and only a month and half to prepare, the Australian Women’s team have assembled together in Abu Dhabi to compete in the International Women’s Volleyball Tournament. A great honour for the team to be invited to participate and possibly considered a logistical nightmare to organise, but the team has made it and finally on the first day on competition (today) they are all together.

The team’s preparation hasn’t been extensive. Nine of the players have been training with the AVL teams in Australia, and all compete in the first round of AVL last weekend in Melbourne. Those players and support staff departed Melbourne on an 20 hour trip to Abu Dhabi, arriving at the hotel in the early hours of tuesday morning. The three remaining players were coming in from other locations, 2 from the USA and 1 from France, where they have been playing and training with their Club or Uni teams. They arrived 20 hours after the rest of the team, and missed the first training practice. And our captain, Anna Maycock, almost didn’t make it all. Not that anyone was panicking…but orginally given the wrong departure time for her flight from Tolouse, she missed that flight, and when she turned up the next day to catch the same flight, the ticket had been cancelled. But not one to be flustered, she just booked her own ticket to Dubai, and thankfully is here.

But who said that International travel had to be all smooth sailing. One team official was feeling rather victimised in her adventures, as there always seemed to be a problem at each airport she went through. Departing from Melbourne, her carry on luggage was too heavy, but of course, no one else’s was weighed, and transitting through Singapore, the metal detectors went off, but possibly the best incident was at Dubai International Airport, when bringing up the rear of the group, was the only person selected to have their luggage x-rayed, and thus seperated from the group for what seemed like a lifetime, but really only momentarily. (Do I really look that suspicious?)

Welcome

The Australian Women’s Volleyball Team are currently in Abu Dhabi to compete in the first Abu Dhabi International Women’s Volleyball Tournament. This innaugral event has attract 10 teams from across the world and has a total of $1million in prize money on offer.

This site will follow the girls daily life and experiences in the UAE, providing some insight into touring with VTAW, as well as recording the results and match reports for their games.  Photos will also be uploaded as well  as any tournament news or funny stories to share.  To get yourself started, make sure you visit the Team’s Page, and get to now the girls that represent Australian Volleyball.