Volleyball
1 April, 2025
Winning start for Phantoms
In the Victorian Volleyball League, highlights for Volleyball Horsham members include Tyler Puls assuming the premier one men’s libero role, Jack Hannan being given the captain’s honors for the premier two men, Oscar Jackman debuting in premier two, Sophie Quick making her premier two debut as well, Tim Carter making a successful return after injury and Laelah Robertson refereeing at the premier one women’s level for the first time.
Puls said the premier one men were given an almighty fright by Latrobe Uni who refused to yield under the onslaught of key Phantoms players in Scott Johnson, James Haythorne and Cam Robinson.
“To Latrobe Uni’s credit they threw everything at us and we had to dig deep to register the two wins.”
“I know they certainly gave me a hard time, especially on serve receive, so I know what I’ll be working on at training over the next two weeks.”
For Tamikah Dockrill and her premier one women’s team the biggest highlight came early when former Volleyroo and professional player Karly Hynes was presented with her Phantoms top as she made her debut for the club.
“Just her presence was nerve wracking, and she showed that she is going to make life tough for a lot of teams.”
“Karly glided around the court like the true professional she was, and she is going to make us both individually and as a team so much better.”
Two wins over Latrobe Une have set the team up well for their next encounter against Dandenong and VIP next week.
For the premier two women, they absolutely smashed Latrobe Uni in their morning game and repeated the dose to Western Region Wolves in their afternoon game.
Robertson, Quick and Paige Hemley all enjoyed their time on court in their team’s demolition of both opponents.
Tyler Snowden’s state league men’s one team split their results against Alliance Gold going down in straight sets in their morning match but showed good character to bounce back and win a tough five setter in their afternoon match.
“We were a bit slow to get going early on but we had a good chat in between games and made some adjustments which proved to be the difference in the end.”
“Winning five setters is always a good show of determination and character and that win will do the world of good tour team going forward.”
Mercedes Arnott’s state league one women’s team split their results against Carrum Downs Royals, winning in four sets in their morning match, and going down in four in their afternoon match.
“We blew our chances in the afternoon match leading what we thought was comfortably in the fourth, but to Carrum Downs credit they overran us, but as a young team we will learn from that going forward.”
Noah Werry’s state league two men’s team had a gutsy five set win over Carrum Downs Royals in their morning match but couldn’t quite back up against an enthusiastic Heidelberg team in the afternoon.
“They made plenty of noise and really let us know when they won a point which was difficult for our team to counteract, as we were young and still finding our way around each other as a team.”
“We’ll learn from that and take plenty into our next game.”