A number of matches from both the ladies and men’s senior leagues were played this weekend at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

Aloysians Lipton registered a convincing victory in the men’s league when beating rivals Kerygma while Paola Hibs Candy managed to overcome the challenge posed by Flyers. The under 15 leagues also started with a number of matches in the girls category with Flyers A, Paola Whites and X-Sel all registering wins and Aloysians beating Marsascala in the boys category.

In the men’s league Alosyians Lipton faced Kerygma with Alosyians winning the match 3-0. Aloysians managed to recover Ron Stivala in time for this game but had Alan Gauci out of action due to an injury.

The first two sets both started off with both teams determined to take three points home but at 16-16, Alosyians Lipton with good spikes from David Caruana and Louis Scriha managed to overcome the Kerygma opposition and ended the sets 25-20 and 25-18.

The third set saw a more organised Kerygma side with Robert Balzan and Chris Tanti attacking well.

Kerygma were close to winning this set and had an advantage of three points at 23-20. However, Aloysians Lipton fought back and came from behind to win a close third and final set 29-27.

In the second senior men’s match played this weekend, Marsascala overcame Aloysians Red with a final score of 3-0. The final result was rarely in any doubt as a more experienced Marsascala side was determined to take three points out of this match. Aloysians fought well during the first and third set but eventually went down to a more Marsascala. A slight change in the usual rotation saw Michael Magro play in the libero position; this proved to have a positive impact on the team.

In the ladies league, Paola Hibs Candy managed with great difficulty to overcome Flyers with the match ending 3-2 in Hibs favour.

Hibs started off very well and immediately took a two set lead without any problems through excellent teamwork. The match seemed to be heading for an easy 3-0 victory in Hibs favour and this allowed coach David Bonnici to make some substitutions by replacing Elaine Caruana with under 18 player Sherika Seychell and Carmen Gauci with Denise Aquilina.

However, Flyers fought back and with attacks from Daniela Borg and Amanda Agius managed to win a close third set. This inspired Steve Farrugia’s team, who were without Lindsay Cordina, to keep on going and give it all during the fourth set. Flyers always lead throughout the fourth set and a number of well placed tips from Daniela Borg broke the Hibs defence and eventually helped win the set.

The match headed towards a tie-break which would decide the winner. Hibs Candy settled down during this set and raised the level of play with good service defense from main receivers Gertrude Zarb and Alison Borg Hayman with spikes from Carmen Gauci winning precious points. They overcame their opponents with a final score of 15-5.

The second ladies match, a more experienced Playvolley Blue easily beat Playvolley Red in three sets with scores ending 25-15, 25-18 and 25-11.

In the ladies under 18’s league, Paola lost to Fleur de Lys with a score of 2-0 and in the boy’s category, Aloysians beat Kerygma 2-0.