End of 2009 State League Season
2009 started early for the Women’s program, in particular the Honours team, Monday 12th January with outdoor preseason fitness training !!! We hit the indoor boards the first week of February.
A combined honours and div 1 team headed off to Warrnambool with only 2 honours players from 2008, plus our new signing Jess Lampe from Mornington. We played div 1 and took out the title, 3-1 against Austral from SA, felt even better as ex falcon, Jason Potts (if he ever comes back to Victoria he will become a falcon again), is the head coach for the Austral women’s program.
The new VVL State League tournament was our first opportunity to get our entire honours team together (minus Skip overseas & Erica injured).
This was a successful tournament coming second to Renegades.
So to the actual season………
In 2008 the honours team finished 5th. 2009 saw the blooding of some youth with Jaimee-Lee, Monique, and Jacinta joining the Honours team.
The actual round robin phase of the season was very up and down, players injured or away at times, we started off like a house on fire, had a lull in the middle, and then came home with 3 straight wins. We played 12 matches, 7 wins and 5 losses.
Our semi final was against Heidelberg, and this turned out to be our best performance of the season. Tactical serving and dominant blocking saw us 3-1 victors.
Now onto the preliminary final against Yarra Ranges, the only team in the competition we hadn’t beaten in 2009. From two nil down, we came back to take it to the 5th, where we went down 15-8.
While we know we could have won the premiership, the fact is we weren’t good enough on the day BUT the future is very bright…… bring on 2010 !!!
Finally, I would like to say a special thank you to Grace, who is there all the time when I need her, no matter how big or small the task is, and I did enjoy the coaches meeting every Saturday at the Dandy Club.
