The Universities of Rome Championship as well as the Oroverde Tournament are about to start soon, and our Coed Volleyball team is warming up the engine just right.
After a few previously decent performances, last night, our Gladiators earned their first victory in a friendly game against SG Volley. JCU won 3-2 against a well-organized and solid team, but our determination and perservance brought our team to take the victory.
The game was a back to back series of winning sets. JCU immeditaly started off strong and set up a dynamic strategy, which made things difficult for SG. Our Gladiators won the first set, 20-25.
In the second set, SG was able to react well to the previous defeat. The opponents used all the best tactics to win the second set but struggled against a team who didn’t let go for a second. Nonetheless, SG won the second set 25-23.
Flaminia Giacomi – Captain of JCU Coed Volleyball Team
JCU entered back strong into the game for the third set and was able to dominate it, winning 21-25.
In the fourth set, our Gladiators began to feel exhausted, and the opposing team exploited the situation in its favor by setting up a pace that was hard to control for JCU. At the beginning of the set, SG was winning over JCU with an enourmous advantage. However, thanks to an efficient team effort and a series of successful serves by our Captain Flaminia Giacomi, JCU was able to shorten the score gap, and the set ended 25-22 for SG.
“I really appreciated our ability to react,” coach Papari commented. “We went through some extremely difficult situations during the game, but we never back down for a moment.”
This last defeat didn’t distract JCU from the final goal, and our Gladiators spent all of their remaining energy during the tie break. JCU played strong and was able to conquer the game, winning the tie break 11-15.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Papari concluded. “They all played really well, and I saw a very cohesive team that was actually enjoying playing together. We definitely still have to fix and improve on various technical and tactical aspects of the game, but I really liked what I saw tonight out there on the court.”
Congratulations, Gladiators! Now keep it up!
MVP – Sean Hong
