Australian Volleyball League – Round 2 Wrap
Rewatch all the AVL 2022 Round 2 games on Cluch TV
Canberra Heat vs WA Steel
Men’s Game 1: ACT 3 – 1 WA (25-21, 25-18, 18-25, 25-20)
Men’s Game 2: ACT 1 – 3 WA (25-22, 25-20, 11-25, 26-24)
Canberra Heat proved to be too strong for the WA Steel in the first match-up of the weekend and a repeat of the 2019 AVL semi-final match.
Seth Chen earned his first AVL start as setter for the Heat and made some smart plays through the middle to Simon Hone and Cameron Steer. WA answered back through Jose Martines and through good use of the pipe and Jed Walker. Serving pressure proved a big difference with Trav Passier and Sam Walker racking up aces for Canberra Heat, while WA had one too many service errors which ACT capitalised on to take the 3-1 victory.
“We were happy with the overall performance,” Canberra Heat Coach Ben Hardy said. “With a couple of normal starters away, it was great to see the younger guys step up. Seth Chen set well for his first start and we are happy with our serving targets and pressure around the block.”
In a reversal of Saturday’s match WA Steel came away with the 3-1 win over the Heat on Sunday. Coach Ben Gray made a number of lineup changes from the previous match with Kable Monck starting and Jed Walker moving into the opposite position.
Great defensive work by Oswald Tan and Daniel Piggot putting his body on the line to keep making digs allowed WA to create scoring chances. The Canberra Heat will look back in frustration as they showed in the third set the type of play they can produce, but it was too little too late as WA won the fourth set 26-24 to claim the victory.
“It was great to bounce back from yesterday and split the round against Canberra, it always makes the travel worthwhile,” Steel Coach Ben Gray said.
Women’s Game 1: ACT 3 – 2 WA (9-25, 25-22, 13-25, 25-16, 15-7)
Women’s Game 2: ACT 0 – 3 WA (25-10, 25-21, 25-13)
A seesawing five-set thriller between the Canberra Heat and WA Steel started the Round 2 action in Canberra on Saturday.
With excellent attacking from both teams, standout performances came from Tessa Browne (WA Steel) and Kasey Hogan (Canberra Heat) in the middle. However, it was the outside attacking from Heat’s Ella Milne that proved the difference as she kept the pressure on WA.
Some strong serving from Canberra Georgia Niedermeier and Holly Mallet made it difficult in the fourth and fifth set for WA to get the momentum back, and ACT came out victorious from the five-set marathon.
After a nail-biting match on Saturday, the WA steel turned around their loss and powered through for a 3-0 victory on Sunday. Leading the way in defense and attack was captain Shelby Maher, while Caity Whincup also put in a fantastic effort.
Story courtesy of Volleyball Australia.