The halls and corridors of Murtoa College will be buzzing with excitement this week after the gold medal-winning performance of the school’s Year 10 girls’ volleyball team at the national schools cup.
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Reversing the result from last year, the girls defeated Loxton 2-1, 25-22, 19-25, 15-7 to claim their first gold medal as a team.
Coach Shaun Bray was as proud as punch after the historic win.
“The girls have stuck together for the best part of the last three years and have taken their opportunities and improved along the way,” he said.
“This gold medal has been well deserved by all nine players.”
The girls opened their campaign with a close loss to Loxton in their first game but this didn’t faze Bray.
“Whilst you always want to win, we learnt a lot from the loss which set us up for the rest of the week.”
The team then proceeded to win the rest of their games to qualify second in their pool which put them into a repecharge against Cannon Hill which they won comfortably.
A gold medal qualifier against Lyneham was closer than expected but again the team got over the line, which gave them a rematch with Loxton for gold.
The team started well on the back of some good blocking and strong serving.
They opened up a 17-13 lead but began to get nervous as the score moved into the twenties, as the tall Loxton blockers started to get into the game.
But the girls held their nerve and got over the line 25-22.
The second set started in similar fashion but once again the Loxton blockers began to exert an influence and with some well placed serves the set slipped away from the Murtoa girls, eventually going down 19-25.
“I was beginning to worry but all I said to the girls was stay positive and minimise their error rate and we should be right,” Bray said.
“The girls did just that and were first to eight, which is a massive advantage when you’re playing a deciding set and we managed to surge ahead to win comfortably in the end.”
Bray was full of praise for the way the girls continued to fight all the way throughout the week.
“To win gold at an event like this is not easy and you need a lot of things going your way from the first whistle to the last.”
“The girls embraced the challenges presented to them and didn’t take a backward step which was significant in the end.”
Bray also praised the tremendous amount of support provided to his team.
“From my assistant Delaney Wills and team manager Jo Baker, to our principal Tony Goodwin and all the parents and friends who got behind the team, it all adds up to a positive culture, one which only helps to get the results you can only dream of.
“We look forward with great excitement and anticipation because we have seen in the past just how influential a result like this has on the sport in the school.”
In other results St Brigid’s Year 10 boys and Horsham College Year 11 girls both lost their bronze medal matches, Horsham College Year 8 girls finished sixth, while their Year 8 boys finished 11th and St Brigid’s Year 10 girls finished 12th.
“Some very positive results overall from Wimmera schools and it only serves to spur on those teams and others to strive for better results going forward,” Volleyball Horsham president David Berry said.
