MS Girls Volleyball – Kanto plains end of season tournament
Saturday 2nd November at ASIJ.
BST 0- 2 ISSH
BST started the morning in pool B with ASIJ and ISSH (International School of Sacred Heart) as a seeding result from previous games this season. BST played ISSH first on court one, and opened the game up by winning the first serve, from Jimin, and the match was away, both teams eager to win and show their skills. ISSH took the lead, BST fought back: Lisa delivered five great attacking serves taking the score to 6-6. ISSH took the lead again, though, and the first set ended 14-21 to ISSH. BST knew they could do better and worked extremely hard in the second set, taking an 11-04 lead but were unable to maintain this as ISSH served some strong balls, narrowing the gap to 16-10. BST’s frustration started to show as we became a little ragged – and ISSH overhauled us, eventually winning the second set 17-21.
BST 0-2 ASIJ
The next game was immediately after so BST were warmed up and ready to attack ASIJ (American School in Japan). Although we started off scoring point for point, ASIJ soon took a lead of 12-08; BST continued to look strong and worked hard, returning ASIJs hits which took them – and the spectators – by surprise. Nevertheless, ASIJ held the lead and took the first set 21-14. BST started off strong in the second set and took control of the game, attacking ASIJ and moving around the court really working together as a team. BST were ahead 07-05 after Jimin delivered five amazing serves. BST maintained the lead, thanks to some great serving from the rest of the team, and halfway through we were up 13-12. However, ASIJ attacked back and BST lost a few points cheaply. Lisa successfully delivered five magnificent serves, bringing the score 18-19 to ASIJ: there was only one point in it, but unfortunately ASIJ served two strong balls to sneak over the line at 21-19 to ASIJ. A great effort from BST.
BST 2-0 YIS
As BST had lost both the two preliminary games, we went through to the consolation round for 7th place. First up were YIS (Yokohama International School), and after a three-hour break between matches, BST were a little slow out of the blocks: YIS took the lead, and we were just unable to get it together. The score moved to 19-23 in favour of YIS and another loss was looming large before us. Up stepped Jimin, to deliver five amazing serves bringing the score to 24-23 to BST. After some ding-dong serving, the score edged up to 26-25. As the pressure shifted in our favour, Heloise delivered two mighty serves and BST took the first set 28-26.
Going into the second set BST knew they had to work together more and attack YIS. We took total control and were soon up 14-7. BST continued to serve well and attack YIS at every opportunity and in the blink of an eye the second set was over: a convincing 25-16 win.
BST 2-0 NIS
The last game of the day was BST against NIS (Nishimachi); having beaten them earlier in the week, BST felt quietly confident. The game started slowly, point for point, but BST took the lead and were up 10-4 after some great serves from Jimin. NIS managed to claw points back due to some careless errors and one or two over-confident misjudgments from BST. Fortunately, we hung on and pulled it back together to attack them once more and take the first set 25-18. The girls were now visibly tiring – but so were NIS. BST started the serve in the second set but again were unable to take the lead and NIS were up 5-3 after the first few minutes. Enter Lisa, with five successful attacking serves, followed by Anne with five more. Heloise continued the surge with three sledgehammers and suddenly BST were leading 19-6. NIS were simply unable to gain possession as Jimin followed with some great overhead serves and BST ended up dominating the second set, running out 25-9 winners: a very convincing game and a very pleasing result.
A long but a well-played day. BST finished 7th overall in the MS Girls’ Kanto Plain Volleyball tournament 2013.
Players: (Left to right)
Front row: Evie, Jimin (Captain), Heloise, Amy
Back Row: Anne, Martina, Lisa
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