The finals of the Fr. Parnis Volleyball Cup were played over the weekend. Paola Hibs Candy and Valletta San Antonio needed only two of the three games to retain the cups, with Paola winning the cup for an impressive 8 consecutive times in the Ladies Sector. Valletta have now won the Men’s Cup 3 consecutive times. In the Ladies Division II Flyers Depiro II regained some pride by beating the Paola U’18 side.

Paola Hibs Candy vs Flyers Depiro: Game 1: 3-0 (25-15; 25-22; 25-21); Game 2: 3-1 (18-25; 25-13; 25-13; 25-12):

Paola strong serves in Saturday’s first set never gave Flyers a chance to get into the set . Flyers reacted in the second but Paola recovered well with some tactical changes and went on to win two other consecutive sets and game 1.

Flyers drew first blood in the first set on Sunday with a number of very good attacks through the middle. However, Paola started to get into the game and with some tactical services and varied attacks they put Flyers into great difficulty. This, coupled with some good defending, enabled Paola Hibs Candy to win three straight sets to win the cup once again.

Valletta San Antonio vs Attard Tenovar: Game 1: 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-18) ; Game 2: 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 26-24)

Valletta were in control in both games although a resilient Attard posed a worthy challenge to the holders in various instances of the match. Valletta did not maintain consistency throughout both games and after building a healthy advantage in each set they let Attard back in the game although the final result was never in peril. Attard's defence made up for their inferior block and attack, and they managed to defend many of Valletta's fierce attacks.

Valletta played very well in attack particularly through Dalton Caruana, Robert Balzan, Paul Tonna and Jonathan Chetcuti, but had some problems in their service reception and also made a number of unforced errors while serving.

Fresh from their training camp in Milan earlier in the week, Valletta were a united team and played some fast volleyball with some interesting attacking combinations using their middle and outside spikers effectively.

All 12 players made their presence felt on court in various parts of the game. Worthy of mention is Valletta's block that stopped a large number of Attard's attacks, with the latter having to resort to tipping in their offence. Valletta however didn't always manage to impose their fast game and their inconsistent reception did not not allow their setters to use all their attacking options. These factors, together with Attard’s never say die attitude impacted the result in every set.

Division 2: Flyers Depiro II vs Paola U’18: 3-0 (25-15; 25-20; 25-18):

Flyers found no difficulty in disposing of Poala’s U’18 team although they did have to bring in their more experienced players in the third set when Poala’s Daniela Ellul’s services created some difficulties for Flyers’ younger players. Rachel Caruana and Anna Grech had a good game for Flyers who have now won all their 6 games in the second division to retain the top spot.