On Monday 26th of June, the Edmund Rice Open’s Volleyball Team travelled to Homebush for the NSW Schools Cup Volleyball tournament. An early wake up and bus drive into Sydney resulted in a slow start against our first opponents, Winmalee High School. The Friday practice sessions started to show with excellent serves, returns and spikes. A special mention to the Team Captain, Hugh Akmacic, for providing great energy for us with his serves to set the tone for the day.

The team blitzed through their next few pool games against Arthur Phillip High and Fort Street High before coming up against a formidable opponent in Scots College. The result of this match would determine which team played in the grand final. With great communication and a switch up from the initial positions of the day, the boys were able to coordinate both offensively and defensively. As the saying goes, a good defence wins championships, and this was epitomised by Cooper Newell-Glaser and Blake Sharman who pulled off some monster blocks against Scots. An early lead in the first two sets consolidated a grand final appearance for Edmund Rice College.

The final match of the day saw Killara High School as the opponent. The boys knew this would be competitive but were ready to rise to the challenge with early energy. Caleb Barnes displayed his diverse range of skills by serving a number of aces and keeping Killara guessing with his spikes, supported well by our setter Matthew Bunder. The energy from the very beginning continued to grow with Marcus Meogrossi trying to save every point and Elias Logue going on a streak of serves to win the match without requiring the final set.

It should be noted that the boys only lost a single set throughout the tournament, yet treated all opposition with respect and dignity as is the Edmund Rice way.

Thank you to Mr Sjostedt for driving and Mr Timpano for the ongoing support of the College’s Volleyball program.

Mr Forshaw
Coach