Volleyball
Round 4 of the 2023 Santa Sabina Invitational Volleyball Competition took place on Saturday 4 November. On a morning affected by rain, Pymble still managed to play all eight of their matches. Most of the games went down to the wire in each set, with most being very close and won by only two points. Pymble 4 put on a dominant display by outscoring Loreto Kirribilli by 75 to 31 points. Pymble 3 showed tremendous heart to draw with Sydney Girls High School after losing their first set by only two points. They were also missing four key players who were away for Volleyball NSW State Cup. Our two senior teams remain undefeated for the season after impressive wins against Meriden and Monte.
| Team | Opponent | Result | Score |
| Pymble 1 | Meriden 1 | Win | 2 to 0 |
| Pymble 2 | Monte 3 | Win | 3 to 0 |
| Pymble 3 | Sydney Girls High School 2 | Draw | 1 to 1 |
| Pymble 4 | Loreto Kirribilli 5 | Win | 3 to 0 |
| Pymble5 | Loreto Kirribilli 6 | Loss | 0 to 3 |
| Pymble 6 | Danebank 6 | Loss | 0 to 3 |
| Pymble 7 | Santa Sabina College 13 | Loss | 1 to 2 |
| Pymble 8 | Sydney Girls High School 8 | Loss | 0 to 3 |
Week 4 Most Valuable Players
Pymble 1 – Charlotte Dhanu (Year 11)
Pymble 2 – Lavan Cardo (Year 10)
Pymble 3 – Camille Xiao (Yeaer 8)
Pymble 4 – Samantha Li (Yar 8)
Pymble 5 – Sophie Zheng (Year 9)
Pymble 6 – Livia Armstrong (Yeaer 9)
Pymble 7 – Angela Bai (Year 7)
Pymble 8 – Estelle Lee (Year 7)
Week 4 Most Improved Players
Pymble 1 – Lily Huang (Year 11)
Pymble 2 – Khatthaliya Elliott (Year 10)
Pymble 3 – Lucy Cheong (Year 9)
Pymble 4 – Grace Park (Year 8)
Pymble 5 – Emily Kim (Year 9)
Pymble 6 – Isabella Zhang (Yeaer 8)
Pymble 7 – Emma Sim (Yar 7)
Pymble 8 – Elizabeth Liu (Year 7)
Senior First Report by Caitlin Costello (Year 11)
Pymble 1 showed resilience in this weekend’s match, battling through rain, mud, and overall uncomfortable wet conditions to overcome Meriden and win 2 to 0. The first set was extremely successful with our very own Charlotte Dhanu (Year 11) serving 11 times in a row to bring us to a 25 to 16 victory. Shoutout to Chloe Gu (Year 10) showing outstanding skills with constant and intimidating presence at the net. However, due to wet conditions, we had to adapt our play.
Setting switched from finger passing to bumping to minimise slips, which unfortunately happened a few times, and the covers were tighter to the net as the opposition did not want to risk hitting hard. Adaption to the opposition’s style gave us a better advantage to read their plays and ultimately score some points! As our team prepares on the court and at the gym for Nationals, we have also worked on some cheers to use which were practised throughout the match.
It’s important to regularly cheer as maintaining high energy is a necessity in such a fast-paced game. The second set showed the importance of this, where a slight slump in energy caused the game to tie 17 to 17. From this experience, we learnt as a team to keep the energy high and the technique better, as the constant serves from Meriden had begun to wear us down.
But as Pymble 1 does, we rose to the challenge to win 25 to 19. It’s been, and continues to be, such an amazing experience to watch my teammates develop into such talented players and I can’t wait to see how well we will do in future matches. Go Pymble!
Volleyball NSW State Cup
It was great to see Pymble represented in the NSW State Cup Division 2 Under 18’s finals today. Vanessa Liu (Year 11), Alicia Slobodian (Year 11), Isabella Chen (Year 10), and Vicky Hu (Year 10) represented the Acers who won in a very close and exciting match against Sydney North Volleyball, with two Pymble players in this team: Charlotte Dhanu (Yr 11) and Caitlin Costello (Yr 11).
Well done to our Pymble Volleyball players, we are very proud of you and look forward to you representing the college in the upcoming Volleyball Australia Schools Cup.
Chris Wood
Sports Co-ordinator – Volleyball