[VBALL 'B' DIV SZ] CATHOLIC HIGH VS CHONG BOON SEC

Chong Boon Secondary was Catholic High School's opponents today. How good were day? During the warm up sessions, they seemed like a tea that was well trained and discipline and their Number 10 was skinny and lean but the power of his spike shots were really good.

Before the game, their teacher in charge again gave the whole team the choice to set their personal goals on what they wanted to achieve in each game. The last two games, their goal of keeping their opponents at the 15 point mark was not met. This time they continued this goal as the mark and also set themselves to keep the score as low as possible.

With opening game, Wayne gave away 3 points with a poor service, and mistakes on court, Nicholas gave a good short spike to get back some points and Sunny did a good save at the back of the court to keep the ball alive to bring the points to 14-4 to Catholic High's favour. However, Nicholas was caught touching the net to allow the opponents to gain a point, 14-5. Service errors seemed to be on the Catholic High side as Peijie gained a point with a spike to bring the score to 15-5 but erred in a service, serving out of the opponents' court letting the score to be 15-6.

With rallies on and spiking and blocking, Catholic High did good with receiving the opponents spikes and attacks and converted these into their own attacks back to their opponents, gaining point by point. At 24-12, Catholic High took down the set with a good tag team block of Nicholas and Darius, 25-12.

At the second set, Catholic High team, determined to continue to keep their opponents at bay at below 15 point and Darius drew first blood with his serve. Shawn received well with a thunderous spike from Chong Boon's Number 10 but his technique was really good and he got the point for Chong Boon at his second spike into Catholic High's court, bringing the first score for Chong Boon 1-3.

It seems that the umpires were on the Catholic High side with calls that were made to our favour, with four touches not being called, or ball from Chong Boon being in, was called as an "out" ball. This added the frustration to the Chong Boon side and helped Catholic High in their game play. But kudos to Number 10 from Chong Boon never gave up and played a splendid game of spiking cleverly into empty space left and right to the back court area, catching the Catholic High boys unaware and gaining crucial points back for Chong Boon.

But Volleyball is a team game and even one talent, Number 10 from Chong Boon is not going to stop the team from Catholic High. The Catholic High team played the game to 24-9 and Shawn had the honour the end the game with a spike down with the score of 25-9.

Though Chong Boon, seem seemingly like an easy opponent, Catholic High have got to remember that at the second set, at least 3 points were points freely given by the umpire and lots of points also were given by the opponents as well, their own mistakes. So realistically, Catholic High did not really work that hard to gain the points in the game. Catholic High also had some mistakes and the showing from their opponents proved that mistakes must be minimized at every game.

The take away from this game was also that, each player need to remember not to celebrate too early. That they need to celebrate only after the FINAL whistle has been blown and until then, every effort to get the point to win is crucial.

Also, there is a need to remember that Catholic High Volleyball team is not a team made up of some talents, we are a team and there is no "I" in the word "TEAM". The teacher in charge told the boys this

 "We build the team on basics, not Talent.  It is basics we can fall back upon, Talents failed us at times"

and it is something they have to remember especially where at times they are going to face difficulties and some might not perform up to par to their usual talented self but to remember that every training, their basics and core of their art of playing volleyball is what will help them rise up to the occasion in every competition they are going to be playing.