Easter Sunday had us playing Golden Moos and TBA again
with 2 good 3-0 results. Because of the lack of numbers
in the Women's comp - we played Kiwi Amazons in a
final on the Monday. And what a game it was - we played
very well with points going our way and winning the first 2
sets. The 3rd set was much of the same, with us leading
24-19 and 6 match points in hand. But, to the Kiwi's
credit, they went back, served long and deep pushing
our backcourt and putting pressure on our spikers. We
did have our chances at the net, but just not enough
to finish the point off - we lost that set 25-27. We lost
the 4th set and went into the 5th a little weary. The team
rallied well when times got tough and we were down 11-14.
Leena went back and served well to get us back
to 14-14. Unfortunately we couldn't hold them off and they
defeated us 14-16. I'd have to say one of the most
interesting games I've played in and a terrific standard.
As disappointed as we were to lose what was in the bag, a
fantastic tournament was had by all - and a special thanks
to both Vera & Cheryl who were of great support on the
bench. As we were the only team in our Age Division, we
came away with the Gold Medal - our first at
Masters level. Yay!

Phantoms MVP - Winner: Helen Sanders - R/Up: Sue Cooper
3rd: Andrea Best

Bendigo Dragon City 2006 - Div 1 Women.

A well-rounded team ventured once again to Bendigo
with Cheryl, Lisa, Kylie, Lyn, Rosemary, Sabine, Shireen
(a welcomed return since her last Phantoms venture in
2002) and we welcomed Melissa Baran - a young local
Geelong girl who has played most of her volleyball with
Vostok, and has made the transition to Phantoms very
well. Also, Cheryl had spent most of the year playing on
and off, as well as having an arthroscope on her
troublesome knee in July - she was back and rearing
to go! We weren't to know it was going to be a very
tough tournament this year, our first game was against
Renegades - a mixture of Honours & Div 1 players. It
was a hard game with us coming away with a draw.
We next encountered Mornington - again a mix of Honours
and Div 1, in a very close match we lost in 3 sets 12-15
in the 3rd when time ran out. Against Golden Square we
had a hard fought match again and found ourselves running
out of time and this was another draw. We scanned the
other games, and it seemed that a lot of them were draw's
also, so it was up to our last game against Bendigo
Academy to see where we would finish. Mornington
were already through to the final, and Renegades had
secured 2nd spot - it was going to be a tussel between
us and Golden Square as to who played off Sunday
morning with renegades to get into the final. We had
an excellent game against Bendigo Academy with all the
girls playing good disciplined volleyball - winning 3-0 sets
and putting us into 3rd place by 1 set.

We played Renegades Sunday morning, and what a game
it was - just awesome with the girls carrying through
the play from the previous night - we won 2-0 and
through to the final. Our game with Mornington was tight.
Lisa's knees had been giving her trouble after a too
rigorous game of tennis the week before, so we put on
a team we thought could play well against a younger/taller
side - so what else was new! We lost the 1st set, and
turned it around in the second to level at 1 all. The 3rd
set went to Mornington and the 4th to us with having
Lyn setting 5/1 as an alternative. It had all come down
to the last set. We had not gone ahead in any set we had
played this weekend, and the 5th set was the same,
we found ourselves 3-10 down - and then after some
persistence, we got back to 9-11. Unfortunately we were
not able to sustain our momentum and lost the 5th 11-15.
Still a terrific effort - and we must make note of Lyn's
shut-out on the hardest hitter of the comp!! Cheryl had
a very good tournament, with terrific blocking and
hitting, Lisa managed well even during the final where
she played 2 or so sets and helped out, Kylie made a
welcome return and played steadily and even getting 8
serves into court in a row (oh my goodness Kylie). Rosemary
had a great time getting to hit front court for a welcome
change, and Sabine had a ball getting back in the Phantom
spirit since Worlds last year. Shireen performed
consistantly and assisted us well with her setting and Melissa
continued her good form from Country Champs this year
where we have found her to be a steady contributor in all
fascets of the game. A terrific effort by everyone again.

Horsham 2006 - Div 1 Women.

Our last tournament for 2006 - Phantoms represented
by Andrea, Cheryl, Helen, Jess, Lisa, Lyn, Nadia
(first time Horsham girl!) Sue, and a big welcome to Suzi
Fish from Warrnambool making her Phantoms debut! It was
a best of 3 sets tournament with us playing 6 games in the
Rounds. As there were only 4 teams, we were going to play
each other twice - In the first round we played the
delightful Bergercons girls (again) and had a good solid
game losing 18-25, 27-25 & 15-25, then a loss to Renegades
16-25 & 18-25 - we had a lot of difficulty against this
team and found it hard to find the floor. Against Gusto
(aka Upwey - been a while since we've seen those shirts)
we had a good solid win 25-9 & 25-15. With 1 win in
the first round against these teams, we knew we'd have
to at least beat Renegades to get it back to even footing
in the next round.

In the second round we played Gusto and had another
solid win, but the turning point was our game against
Bergercons. We won the first set 25-19 which was a
bonus, then lost the 2nd set 16-25. As we had to face
Renegades again, it was important to make sure we didn't
put all our eggs in one basket by wearing everyone out to
win this game - it was hard to tell how things were going
to pan out and we had played what seemed a good team
on paper yet lost the set. So, with our talls & Sue on the
bench, we went with our "short alternate" side - well
wouldn't you know, that combination worked very well
together and we ended up winning the set 25-23 and
the game! We then had to face off against Renegades
for a spot in the final, and as with the Bergercons game,
I didn't want to push everyone to the point we couldn't
give our all, so I went with our best line up again, and
unfortunately lost the first set 13-25. We were having
the same trouble as the day before, just could not find
the floor. So, we went with the "short alternate" side,
and it worked again - we won the 3rd set 25-20 and a
place in the final against Bergercons.

The final was a torrid affair, both Cheryl and Helen
worked very hard at the net against a tough Bergercons
team, 4 of their side were part of Uni Blues AVL
team and the remainder were SL Honours players. We
alternated the team around with great success winning
the 1st set 25-18 and just losing the 2nd set 22-25.
The 3rd set was tough losing 16-25, but a big effort
by our girls found us winning the 4th set 25-22. An
early lead by Bergercons made the going difficult in the
5th with Bergercons winning 9-15. It was a fantastic
tournament - particularly taking Bergercons to 5 in the
final which was a first for us - we are getting closer to
beating them in the final - but will time run out for
the old bones! Some bones are more old than others!
And a big thankyou to all the girls who put in so hard,
worked so very well together and had the belief that
we can win no matter what. Now thats the
Phantoms we love!!

GAVA Season 2 2006.

Back at the start of 2005 we had the opportunity
to start our Phantoms Womens team for Monday nights.
Bellarine had a good core group of players, so Cheryl &
Lisa recruited players to start our team. Shireen, Leena,
Michelle Lebbos, Eden Lebbos, Tayla Lebbos & Skye
DaVinci. We played the first 3 seasons as this team,
but unable to make the Grand Final, though the team
did improve during that time. We then found ourselves
without players for Season 2 - our new team consisted
of Cheryl, Lisa, Shireen, Michelle, a big welcome to
Blair Campbell who had joined us at the start of 2006,
a big welcome back to Liz Nadolski, not having played
for some time, and making their Phantoms debut were
Sharon Noble (from Hackers Mixed team), Andrea
Catlow (Wednesday nights Mixed) & Catherine Nash
(Ex Bendigo - but we won't hold that against her). We
virtually had a new team, and with Sharon, Andrea &
Catherine not having played Women's for some time,
we worked hard during our games and the girls did
everything asked of them. Blair began to improve markedly,
and Cheryl was able to come back at the very end of
the season after a layoff with knee surgery. We finished
3rd on the ladder and faced Geelong in the Preliminary
final. We played our best game of the season winning
3-1 and putting us into our first GAVA Grand Final
against Bellarine. That game wasn't as good as the
previous week, but what is great is this is a team
of girls who are prepared to have a go and play good
volleyball. A terrific finish to our GAVA season 2006.