VOLLEYBALL: The grand final of the Summer volleyball season was contested last Wednesday at the Victor Harbor Recreation Centre between the competitions top two teams, minor premiers Sets on Fire and runners-up Upside.

Throughout the season the two teams have met six times, with Sets on Fire winning five encounters. Upside has to go back to the first night of the competition to discover any success over SoF. Each of the matches before the final has been closely contested with Upside missing out by a narrow margin on each occasion, so the good crowd of spectators was in for a treat.

Despite their captain’s absence due to unforeseen work commitments, Upside began solidly, settling down quickly into the game. Lacey Bell and Leah Clarke served strongly, drawing some errors from the Sets receivers and making it difficult to deliver quality sets to their spikers.

At the net, male medallist Sam Penna, Katie Archer and Ben Stock continued to hit strongly around the SoF blockers and stand-in captain Ellen Topley backed up well, recovering the odd ball over the block and setting accurately under pressure.

Late in the set, Sets captain Cathy Griffen asked her players to step up a notch and they responded to capture the lead and edge in front.

For Sets, the association’s best female player Min Cook was in top form, putting everything into play from the service line and setting for spikers Tony Hewett, Marcus Consalvo and Justin Shute.

One could be forgiven for thinking she had eyes in the back of her head as Cook threw in a number of back sets completely catching out Upside’s blockers, Sets claiming the closely fought first set 25-20.

In the second set, Upside continued the assault, matching Sets point for point and attacking brilliantly. Sets were clearly missing the serving and court play of Matt Wright, sidelined due to injury. As their normally reliable servers began to find the net, Upside turned up the pressure and led late in the set before SoF found their range again to grab the second set 26-24.