Table topping teams' triple triumph As the club's three teams completed their 2018 fixtures, the top of each league is remarkably similar. Giants have won all their matches. Yesterday (Sunday 9th December) they beat SQUAD in three sets at Caius House YC after their men had beaten Thunderball in four.
In the women's first division, the side began by beating Flying Six Angels, 10:21 16:21 13:21 away. before home victories against Lionhearts Cats, 20:22 21:5 21:11 21:13, IMKA Polonia, 21:8 21:10 21:17 and Inter: 21:12 18:21 21:13 21:18,. Sandwiched among these results was an wins at Wapping by 12:21 18:21 10:21. The side has been helped by four of the six contests having been played at home but it has still made an excellent start to the season culminating with the defeat of SQUAD at home on Sunday 9th December 23:21 21:18 21:12. At the end of the last match before Christmas, coach Anestis Kales described the season so far,: “We have been fortunate enough to be in a pool with lots of good teams. That has given us the chance to compete against the best and prove ourselves. So far we embraced the challenge and managed to win all the games. But the most important thing is that we managed to do that playing good volleyball which was our goal from the start of the season. We all look forward to the remainder of the season, hoping to be healthy and keep elaborating as a team. Everybody to be ready to step up for her teammate and all together keep evolving our game, having fun on and off court, trying to play the game in the proper way which will lead us to win” The season began with an away game in women's second division when Giants recorded a win against Flaming Six Comets, 5:21 13:21 17:21. Three home games followed in which they beat Dynamo Divas 21:14 21:17 21:18, VPS Stars, 21:6 21:9 21:8 and Lionhearts Cubs 21:14 21:12 21:12, Away to Richmond they won 12:21 8:21 15:21 and most recently they beat Pin Lon away, 9:21 14:21 18:21 Six games all won in three sets: some record! Orhan Colak, the women's second team coach told us, “After the straight promotion of last year’s Giants W2 team into the first Division, we have created a brand new Giants W2 team and I believe that we have created a very good team in Little Giants VC. All players are new in the team although individually they’ve played before, most of them have not played together before. I believe that my team is a very ambitious team and they are all respectful and sportsmanlike athletes. Our target is to go Division 1 next season and hence the team is training quite hard.” With one team fewer in the men's league second division, only five matches have been played. The team began the season with three consecutive home games, beating VPS Galaxy 21:13 21:17 16:21 21:9, SGSS Southall 21:4 21:17 21:14t and EBC Greenhouse 21:18 22:20 21:15. The away defeat of Wapping Cheetahs 9:21 10:21 16:21 followed before Sunday's home 3:1 victory against Thunderball. The only side they have not yet played is Pin Lon men who are currently anchored to the bottom of the table. “I'm really proud of what my team has achieved until now," coach Giulia Ponti said after beating Thunderball. "We had some trouble in the start of the season such as injuries and some players had to leave for job purposes and so on. However the remaining members were able to react as a team. It's not easy to find a balance through different volleyball cultures, backgrounds and when some of the members have job issues, but I think that our strength is resilience. Sometimes I need to point them in the right direction and they are always there ready to try harder and harder. Our goal is clear - to get promoted. And I'm sure that all my athletes will work until the last training to reach our goal” Source: http://www.londonvolleyball.org.uk/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2184 Contributor, Douglas Barr-Hamilton