On Sunday 23rd April, the Pro Volley Academy players competed in the final of the Under 18 National Championships; Greg Niski’s team took on Boswells Volleyball Club. Sadly the young players from pro Volley Academy couldn’t overcome Darren Lewis’ (himself an ex-IBB Polonia London player) team who took the title 3-1.
Just like last year, Pro Volley Academy started very well; very dominant actions at the net and effective serving gave an advantage of several points and easily took the first set 25-16.
In the next three sets, the team from Boswells changed what they did. Excellence defence and strategic serving caused Niski’s players many problems who couldn’t ground the ball easily. Pro Volley Academy started to make mistake after mistake and the team started to look nervous and on court communication fractured. Boswells won the second and third sets 25-21 and 25-15. The beginning of the fourth set also started poorly with Boswells taking an early cluster of points and towards the end of the set Pro Volley Academy were trailing 22-15. All looked lost and the title seemed to have slipped away, but an extraordinary run of serves and rallies saw the team from London level the score. The very end of the fourth set was nip and tuck with Pro Volley Academy defending two match points it was not obvious who would take the set. In the end it was Boswells who squeaked over the finish line at 29-27 and with that took the set, match and title.
„The first set was a solid performance with Pro Volley Academy sticking to the game plan and being very determined to eliminate errors at that stage. sadly things changed after that initial victory; I’m not sure why they lost their focus, but it caused a total change in their performance. It looked very tough to win clusters of points, their heads dropped and with that their belief in themselves and their abilities.” said Chris Hykiel Director of Sport at IBB Polonia London.
„Such a shame. A shame for the boys for whom this was so important and such an emotional experience. We let ourselves down, but I know that next year we will be better once again” concluded Head Coach at IBB Polonia London and Pro Volley Greg Niski.
This was the final match of the 2022/23 season for juniors and seniors. Soon we will summarise the whole season, but right away we would like to invite all interested players for more open trials to be held on Thursdays at The Academy. We are delighted that volleyball in England is becoming more popular, and we want to continue to be a major part of that. All boys and girls who wish to become the best players that they can be can attend in May and June and more details on this will be shared on our social media very soon.