After an incredible district and regional season for GCC volleyball, our first round of state titles held much hope for our Year 9 and 10 teams. We could finally compete against the best that Queensland schools have to offer.
Teams traveled from as far north as Proserpine, as far west as Charleville and as far south as the Gold Coast to compete in this year’s Intermediate Qld Schools Cup Tournament in Toowoomba. There were 160 teams, representing more than 60 schools played across four divisions, in three age groups.
GCC nominated four teams this year to head down to Toowoomba. Year 9 girls, Year 10 girls and Year 10 boys competed in the Division 1 competition and Year 9 boys competed in the Division 2 competition.
Our Year 10 boys who were silver medalists in last year’s Division 1 competition, finished a commendable 6th out of 12 teams, GCC’s best result for the tournament. They finishing undefeated in their pool and made it straight into the quarter finals. The boys fought well but unfortunately fell agonisingly short of a semi finals berth.
The Year 10 girls dominated their Division 1 pool, finishing undefeated as they entered into the quarter finals. The girls played an amazing tournament and came away with four wins out of six matches to finish 7th out of 15 teams. Some of the notable scalps were arch rivals Caloundra and Mountain Creek.
Our Year 9 girls had a difficult tournament, with almost all their matches going down to the wire in hard fought three set games. The girls were silver medalists in the Division 2 competition in 2017 and were promoted to the Division 1 competition for 2018. They made it to the quarter finals and finished 8th out of 16 teams.
Finally, our Year 9 boys played back to back three set games in their Division 2 competition that also went down to the wire. The boys played well but lost out in their matches by the slimmest of margins each game to finish 7th out of 8 teams.
There are plenty of positives to take away from this year’s tournament, and we all felt quite flat as we were definitely good enough to be top four in our respective competitions, so we will use the pain of this tournament and use it to come back stronger next year.
Thanks for all your support and well wishes. GCC volleyball is in a very good place and will only get better.
Jarred Piennar
