Paola Hibs Candy beat rivals and super cup finalists Flyers by three sets to zero last Sunday in a match that lasted just 72 minutes. Hibs played their best game this season and were sure to completely erase their early performance against Flyers in this year’s pre-season tournament when Hibs lost 3-2.
Flyers coach Steve Farrugia was without Louise Camilleri and setter Rachel Caruana and opted to play their second setter Claudette Mifsud instead together with Marta Curmi as libero.
Flyers struggled to settle down especially during the first set but then managed to play better volleyball. Hibs had Elaine Caruana play in the libero position with Alison Borg Hayman attacking from position 3.
The match was completely one sided with Hibs winning the first set 25-15. Flyers tried to get back into the game but struggled with Amanda Agius and Daniela Muscat unable to express the good volleyball they are known for.
Hibs setter Tiziana Bonnici expertly distributed attacking opportunities to Gertrude Zarb and Carmen Gauci who had little problems in winning points for the Paolites. Both second and third set ended with a 25-20 final score and the full three points to Hibs who now share first place with XSel. Hibs and XSel meet each other on 18 November.
Two matches were played this weekend from the men’s league. Marsascala Mapei met their second team Marsascala and easily brushed off the challenge by winning the match 3-0. Marsascala rarely managed to trouble Mapei as the latter have more experience and are technically superior as most of their players form part of the national team. Supporters present for the match welcomed the return to volleyball of Steve Grech who used to play for Marsascala a few years back.
In the second match, Fleur de Lys FEB played against Aloysians. On paper, Fleur de Lys are a much stronger team and, last Sunday, Aloysians had a number of first six players injured. Alan Gauci, Ian Wright, Matthew Cumbo and Darren Bugeja were not available for this match and this forced a number of changes in the Aloysians team.
David Briffa played as setter and Mauro Busuttil as spiker instead of his usual libero position. Aloysians surprisingly took the lead during the first set with good spikes by Christian Pecorella from middle.
Fleur de Lys committed several service errors and were only superior to their opponents when blocking. Aloysians won the first set 25-23. The second set was balanced too with Aloysians reducing a 6 point deficit to nothing, levelling the score at 16-16.
However, the experienced Fleur de Lys lead by Paul Tonna and Jonathan Chetcuti were able to close the set 25-17.
The third and fourth sets were totally one sided with Dalton Caruana, Cedric Bondin and Eric Sciberras of Fleur de Lys ably served with good sets by Josef Pirotta. Both sets were won by Fleur de Lys with an identical score of 25-15.
In the under 18 girls league, Paola Hibs Candy beat X-Sel 2-0 with a good display from the young Paolites. Hibs were superior throughout the match and won both sets 25-10 and 25-7.