Written by: Cheng Kai Wen
Edited by: Angelina Grace Pandiman
Photos by: Eusoff Works
Final Score: 2 – 0 to Sheares
In the stuffy Utown sports hall, the atmosphere was even more pressurising and nerve-wrecking, as an intense match played on between the Eusoff and Sheares volleyballers. Our Eusoff volleyball boys fought hard and shed blood, sweat and tears (even a shoulder), but fell a little short during the match, conceding 2 sets to Sheares.
For the first line up, we had tall-but-look-blur, Pin An, my boss Khan, one-of-the-Yi-Chens Yee Chern, and forgot-to-bring-jersey Jethro. Our match started with Pin An, Khan and Yee Chern, as the trio tried to get their momentum going. Pin An’s numerous spikes were ground-shattering, literally it was so loud, it felt like a thunderstorm. He accidentally hit one of the Sheares boy’s leg once, and I could feel the pain just by watching. Then, Jethro subbed in for Khan next and the trio continued striving hard, but the occasional mistakes and misjudgements on court caused us to concede even more points to Sheares, and a spike from them ended the first set in their favour.
We started strong in the second set, as the boys tried to set and spike as perfectly as they could with every opportunity they had. Our beast Pin An really put in his all and accidentally strained his shoulders during the match. We called for a timeout for a moment to let him rest, and later Jethro subbed in for him. However, our boys were still very worried about Pin An, as they seemed a little distracted from the game for a while. After they recovered, they played hard and dived to save every ball, not losing their stamina and focus during the extremely long rallies that followed. As the match reached a critical point, Pin An endured the pains of his shoulder and subbed back in, trying his best to win the game for Eusoff. More electrifying spikes from Pin An, Khan and Yee Chern were played out, but Sheares played a better game toward the end, earning this set and winning the line.
by this pic alone, one can tell that this was an intense neck to neck match.
Next line is our captains’ line with Mula, Chao Zhou, David (his debut match for this season!!) and Kevyn. Our captains led the game well, as they kept jumping up to block the opponents’ spikes, doing their best to save every point. With his golden hair, our golden boy David also dived to save the shots and kept the rally going. Perhaps their enthusiasm to save the balls became a little too overwhelming, as the boys went for the same ball a couple of times, overcrowding in a single area. Eventually, Sheares took the first set 15-12. The next set was similarly filled with many dives and saves for the ball, as the boys fell to the floor as though they were attracted to it like magnets, and quickly got back up again, as though they repelled it, readying themselves for the next ball. However, the boys’ efforts did not completely manage to convert, as they lost the set and the game to Sheares.
Chaozhou's jump was so nicely vertical that it almost looks photoshopped.
We have good games on some days and not-so-good ones on others. A bad day doesn’t equal to a bad team or the lack of skills. I believe our boys still have much to show and they will ace it during the semi-finals against Temasek. Heads up boys and we’ll go again!
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