The inaugural Volleyball WA Steel Men & Women put on a show earlier this month during their launch event at Warwick Stadium. The day kicked off at 3:00pm with a 2 hour clinic led by WA Steel Men’s Head Coach Mitchell Collins and assisted by a group of WA Steel athletes. Thank you to all 45 junior athletes who registered and came out to learn and improve their volleyball skills with the best in the West!
Following the clinic, the 2018 Volleyball WA Steel Men & Women were presented in the WA Steel uniforms for the first time, assisted by Volleyball WA President Ian Phipps and Volleyball WA CEO Robyn Kuhl.
The action began at 6:00pm when the Women took the court for their Black vs Gold intra-squad match. After Gold took the first set 25 – 23 led by Assistant Coach Michelle Hilbrands, and Black took the second set 25 – 23 led by Head Coach Mandy Combes, we debuted a new and exciting game format for the third set decider called the “Steal Set”. In the “Steal Set”, however many times the ball crosses the net in the rally is how many points that rally is worth. At the end of the 3 sets, whoever has the most points overall from all 3 sets would be named the winner. This is where the name “Steal Set” originated; even if one team loses the first 2 sets, if they get enough points in the 3rd set they can steal the match! Since the match was capped at 1 hour, the “Steal Set” ended when the clock hit zero. The Women kept us on our toes until the very last point of the “Steal Set” by keeping it too close to call until the last rally. In an exciting final rally, Team Black claimed victory.
The Men’s match kicked off at 7:30pm, with Team Black led by Assistant Coach Stuart Carr and Team Gold led by Head Coach Mitchell Collins. After Team Gold took the first 2 sets 25 – 18 and 25 – 22, Team Black still had a chance in the “Steal Set” to win the match, but missed out by only 3 points. Both the Men & Women put in their best efforts and showed us what the 2018 WA Steel are made of.
The Volleyball WA Steel head off to Melbourne in less than 2 weeks for the 2018 Australian Volleyball League Championships from 7th – 9th December, where both the Men & Women will be looking to better their 2017 Silver Medal results.
Follow the VWA Steel on Facebook and Instagram (@vwasteel) for photos, updates and results, and Reinforce The Steel for their 2018 AVL campaign.
#ForgedStrong