NZL Youth Women one win away from Jenny Kirk Trophy!
-The New Zealand Youth Women (U17) repel a battling Australian Youth Women’s team to win the second test in Timaru and move to within one win of the retaining the Jenny Kirk Trans Tasman trophy in 2008.
The New Zealand Youth Women’s Volleyball Team is playing in the 11th Jenny Kirk Trophy versus Australia. This year series is being playing throughout the South Island; Christchurch October 6, Timaru October 7, Dunedin October 8 & 9, and in Christchurch again on October 10.
Australia came out with an intention to level the series against New Zealand in Timaru but met a solid wall at the net which eventually paid dividends for New Zealand to clinch the second test and a 2-0 lead in the Jenny Kirk Trophy.
A fired up Australia could not keep pace with the New Zealand side in the first set as the Kiwis blocked and defended the Australians at will in the first set. New Zealand jumped out to a 9-5, and then 18-10 lead with a string of serves from Ashleigh Hancock (Nelson) and some formidable blocking from Kiri Hirini (Tauranga). New Zealand finished off the set 25-13.
The second set saw the Australians lift their intensity, noise, and quality of serving as the forced some errors from the New Zealand serve receivers. This kept the game close as the teams were even throughout the set with no team leading by more than 2 points throughout. The senior players again delivered for New Zealand team at crunch time. From 21-21 New Zealand was able to score the next four points to win the second set 25-21.
The third set saw some big swings of points as New Zealand carried the momentum from the second set into the third set to lead 9-3, but then the Australian scored a run of 9-1 to lead 12-10. Australia managed to hold their lead 16-13, on the back of some good blocking and scrambling to secure some long rallies. New Zealand then served their way back into the 3rd set to tie the set 20-20. Some big spiking from Kelsie Wills (Waikato) at the end of the set saw New Zealand grab the lead and complete the 3rd set 25-22, and the match 3-0.
For New Zealand, Captain Krista Whitewood lead again from the front with 14 Attack kills, with Kelsie Wills also getting 9 kills, with key ones at critical times. Kiri Hirini blocked well for New Zealand again and proved to be very dominant at the net. Ashleigh Hancock set well again and ran New Zealand offence well, and also served 5 aces. The youngest player on the court, Andrea Tauai (Tauranga) playing her new role of libero settled well into her role to pass well and play some spectacular defense.
Australia showed definite signs of improvement and development which should make for an exciting 3rd test tomorrow night in Dunedin.
Results -
New Zealand defeated Australia 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-22) in 62 Minutes
