Victorian Country Volleyball Championships,
Warrnambool, 12-14 June 1999.

The 1999 Victorian Country Volleyball Championships
were hosted by Warrnambool from June 12-14.
Geelong entered a Division One team in both the men
and women, with both teams achieving reasonable
success, the men finishing runners up and the women
finishing in third place. Phantoms clubmembers
Aaron and Jim represented Geelong in the men, whilst
Tracy , Leena and Cheryl played in the women’s team.
The Geelong men played steady, improving volleyball
during the preliminary rounds inflicting 3-0 defeats on
all other teams from Ballarat, Bendigo, Latrobe Valley,
Warrnambool and an under 21 side from the Victorian
Institute of Sport. The boys saved their best for last
with a solid win over Warrnambool in the last
preliminary round on Sunday night. However with an extra
setter for the final on Monday, the Warrnambool team
had too many options in attack for the Geelong defence
and managed to turn around the previous result and win the Campionships 3-1. Geelong were unable to convert
free-ball attacks into points with a 5-1 setting system,
and with some slow back court work and some very good
saves from the Warrnambool back line they managed to keep
themselves in every point and apply constant pressure
on the Geelong front line. With Geelong down 1-0,
Aaron Krahe, the most experienced player on the
team, led the fightback with some good hitting and
Geelong took the second set by a couple of points.
But Geelong could not maintain the pressure consistently
and lost the last two sets in fairly ordinary fashion.
The only highlight being Jim Trevaskis managing
to stop a Warrnambool spike from hitting the floor inside
the three metre line with his forehead.
The women began the tournament in their usual slow fashion
losing to an experienced Bellarine combination 3-0. But
they improved their performances and managed a couple
of wins to finish in third place, well enough to do duty
for the final. Cheryl played very well for the whole
tournament and was Geelong’s main hitting option on the
net. Tracy and Leena didn’t get a huge amount of minutes
on court but played consistently and made valuable
contributions to the team when given an opportunity.
Special congratulations to Leena who celebrated her
20th birthday on the trip by dancing up a storm at the
Whalers and enjoying the many benefits of Chartreuse.
Division One women was eventually won by Bellarine in
a thrilling five setter against Bendigo. Several Phantoms
mixed players represented Bellarine, including Carol,
Lyn, Jo, Debbie and Lisa.

GAVA Autumn Season Finals, Leisuretime Centre,
4 July 1999.

Three Phantoms teams fought out the Autumn finals,
mixed, B-grade and A-grade. The mixed team capped
off a very successful season with a good win,
well done. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said
for the mens teams. The Elders took on their nemesis
Syrena "Legends", which was more than ably propped
up by the Geelong State League captain !! In a fairly
lacklustre affair, the Elders went down 1-3. The A
final was a closer affair, with the Phantoms coming
back to win the second and third sets after a poor
start. Unfortunately, the final two sets went to Syrena
(or should I say Geelong State League team). Jim
Trevaskis won the best and fairest again, with Aaron Krahe
runner-up. Jim wasn't available for the re-scheduled
final (due to some GAVA people wanting to attend the
Australia/Poland World League matches in Adelaide) as
he was attending an engagement party in Echuca.
A good crowd watched the games and cheered with
much gusto. A big thanks to all Phantom Phans
who came and supported.

Mixed and A-Grade GF action.

Country League, Ballarat,
25 July 1999.

Another sunny day in Ballarat (it really was) for the
second round of Country League 1999. The women
came away with more wins than losses and the men had
three wins (2 against Ballarat and 1 against Bendigo)
and a loss (to Bendigo). Watch this space for details of
future games, with August 29 probably the final date
to meet in Ballarat.

Country League, Ballarat,29 August 1999.

Who would believe it could be sunny in Ballarat again,
but it was. And the sun wasn't the only thing shining
in Ballarat that day. The Phantom women had wins over
Ballarat and Mt Gambier and a loss to Bendigo to make it
to the final. In the final, the tables were turned and
the Phantoms had their first win over Bendigo
(2-0) to become Victorian Country League Champions.
The Phantom men had wins over Horsham, Mt Gambier
and Ballarat to advance to the final where they easily
accounted for Mt Gambier (2-0) to make it a double
celebration.

PHANTOMS - COUNTRY LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 1999
WOMEN AND MEN.

Geelong State League Volleyball 1999 report.

In a season of injury and inconsistency the Geelong State
League side once again placed runners-up in the 1999
season losing to Heidelberg 3-1 in the Division One final
on Saturday 4th September. Geelong was represented by
13 players during the season but in the final rounds was
at times only just able to scratch a team, and demonstrated
this lack of depth and experience in the final.It wasn’t
until the last few weeks that Geelong played to their
potential posting solid defeats upon Renegades and
Mornington in the elimination final. Before that a
lack of professionalism off and on the court, a lack of
application from several senior players and a lack of team
spirit basically saw the first three games of the season
lost in dismal fashion and the most senior player on the
team Aaron Krahe walk away in disgust. Geelong’s inability
to concentrate under pressure saw them lose games
midseason to Preston and Heidelberg, and scrape
home against underachieving sides like USC Lions, and
left Geelong a pretty big task just to make the finals.
Finishing fourth Geelong thrashed Mornington in the
elimination final and seemed to be travelling pretty well
and finally playing to their potential. The preliminary
final was a much closer affair against Preston with
Geelong winning 3-2. Only poor back court position and
undisciplined hitting and serving allowed Preston to get
close, and in the last set some desperate back court
play and better serving saw Geelong win the fifth set
comfortably. Geelong started the final reasonably
well winning the first set despite poor service reception.
However midway through the second set and with a
slight lead Jim Trevaskis sprained an ankle and had to
leave the court. With only two of the younger players
sitting on the bench Heidelberg exploited Geelong's
inability to set up a decent attack and ragged defense
to breeze through the second set. The third set was
all Heidelberg with Geelong playing terrible and
undisciplined volleyball, hitting nearly every attack out of
court and making silly unforced errors. Jim returned to the
court with his ankle strapped with the score at 12-2
and steadied the back court despite restricted movement.
After losing the third set convincingly, Geelong
restructured their court positions in the fourth set to
try and stop the flow of play, but to no avail.
Geelong’s inability to set up hard, powerful attacking
options throughout the game cost them dearly. Lack of
concentration and confidence saw Geelong’s front line
players totally intimidated by the tall Heidelberg
defence. The loss means that Geelong will not progress
through to Honours Division next year.

Australian Masters Games - Adelaide - 30+ Men.

Back row: Alan Hassell, Chris Murnane, Tom Jones, Aaron Krahe
Front row: Tony Vietenheimer, Peter Hassell, Greg Tulloch, Ross Sullivan

GAVA Spring Season Grand Final, Leisuretime Centre,
8 November 1999.

The GAVA competition has been lop-sided for some time.
During the Spring season the two Phantoms mens teams
combined to form two fairly even teams, as a means of
evening up the competition. As it turned out, one
team was better than the other (they know who they are)
and won all three clashes (the last one being the
preliminary final) and had an 8-1 sets lead !! So, during
the GF, the A/B standard Phantoms faced an almost
State League strength Syrena. In an unusual twist,
Phantoms won the first set with lots of encouragement
from the pro-Phantom gallery. The remainder of the
match saw Syrena on top, but the Phantoms went
down fighting, amassing more than 20 points in each of
the last three sets. And while the honours for the
on-court battle may have gone to Syrena (just), the
off-court battle was certainly won by the Phantoms.
One poor sod, after being warned to stop swearing by
the ref, replied "tell them (the crowd) to stop teasing
me !!". For the first time in living memory a Phantom
player did not win the B&F ... but the club B&F
went to Jon Collyer.

Wimmera Games, Horsham, 20-21 November 1999.

Both mens and womens Phantoms teams ventured North
again for the Wimmera Games. The mens team was under
strength due to Aaron's finger injury, but still had an
outside chance of making the finals. But losses to
Heidelberg, Padua and a Syrena/Lions combination
should have relegated us to fourth (and no duty).
However the combination amazingly lost a game to a
team that hadn't won a set all tournament, giving
them an early departure. The womens team was shunted
into Div 1 (after entering in Div 2), but managed to
defeat USC Lion and almost defeat the Geelong rep
team - not a bad effort without subs and a tournament
virgin - well done Sue Clough! A great weekend was
had by all, and a big thanks to the BBQ King Trev for
the grill-up on Saturday night. Another big thanks to
Jon for playing chauffeur in the big bus for the weekend.

Bellarine Volleyball Association Spring Season Grand Final,
26 November 1999.

The two Phantoms teams finished the regular season
atop the BVA ladder. Unfortunately, due to prior
commitments at the Wimmera Games, one couldn't
play in the preliminary final. So the GF came down to
the Phantoms and the Smartees. Having not lost a match
all season, Phantoms were heavily backed to win and
enjoy an early celebration at "The Mex". But the
Smartees hadn't read the form guide - and pushed
the Phantoms all the way, with the final score being
3-1. Well done to Jo, Leena, Tracy, Cheryl,
Jim and Jon.