Toowoomba Volleyball Association

The usual TVA Invitation Club Tournament which is normally held in February before our league season, has been shifted hoping for cooler weather, to the weekend of 1st & 2nd April.
This is predominantly an A-Grade tournament designed as an opportunity for teams to get settled for the season. There’s nothing like tournament match play in achieving this. It is hoped that there will also be Reserve divisions accomodating a number of the keen school team and age rep teams that want to accelerate their preparation for their 2006 championships. Invitations will be put out shortly and registration costs are promised to be kept at a minimum.

As part of TVA’s muster programme, the usual fun tournament has been scheduled. This will take place on the Sunday between the musters, ie. 5th March and be played at Harristown State High starting at 11am. A lunch time BBQ is included and all will be free of charge ! The playing will go through to about 4pm with fun prizes awarded along the days play. So bring your mates and have an afternoon of fun to help get your players in the swing for the new season!

Well, another season is on the brink …… The first muster is on Tuesday 28 Feb at 7pm (’til 8.30pm) and the second on the 7 March (at the same time). The venue is our regular Harristown SHS volleyball gym. Also, on the Sunday in between the musters will be our “Come & Try” Fun tournament (5 Mar) which will run from 11am – 4pm and includes a BBQ lunch, all free. So bring your mates and have a go to see if you’d like to play this season !

Toowoomba was represented by 5 teams at the recent Australian championships in Melbourne. Harristown entered 2 girls teams (U17s (Honours Div) & U15s (Div 1)) , 2 boys teams (U17s (Div 1) & U15s (Honours)) and Toowoomba Grammar entered 1 boys team in Open Boys Div 1. The oustanding performance for the week’s competition was by the Hawks U17 Boys that went through their 8 pool matches undefeated. The finals looked to be lost with Heathfield starting with unusual vigour, and was poised to be a great anticlimax as the team slipped to having three match points against them (at 22-24) at the end of the second set. But the team held their position and pressed with belief to come back to win the second with an amazing closing spike by Damian McIvor from the centre.

With the refreshed confidence the team ran away in the first half of the deciding 3rd set with some aggressive serving, good defence and effective attack to 8-3 at the crossover. Heathfield rallied and put a lot of pressure on Hawks’ receipt and defence to close the gap but with the help of “El Impacto” Joe Webb at serve, the scrambling of Libero extraordinare, Dougie Linnett and the big hitting of Todd Gardner Hawks held out for the 15-11 win of the 3rd , taking the Gold 2-1. [ HAWKS GOLD !!]

The Division MVP was won by Hawks’ captain who was everywhere and unstoppable at the net …. Matthew Norman and it’s worth mentioning that the other main net player for Hawks, Doug (DJ) Jesshope scored 5th in the MVP tally.

So listing the Gold Medal team members …
Matthew Norman (El Capitano)
Todd Gardner (El Spiko)
Doug Jesshope (El Hang-time)
Dougie Linnett (El Libero)
Damien McIvor (El Centerino)
Daniel Mysliwy (El Blockerino) (Winning point in Gold Deciding set!)
Joe Webb (El Impacto)
Nick Woolff (El Speedy)

Coach – Mark Norman (El Stormin’ Norman)
See ya back on the court fellas… HAWKS’ GOLD !

With a large entry of some 7 teams across as many divisions from Yr 8 – Yr 10, Harristown has come 5th out of the 63 schools participating, and 3rd out of 24 teams in the Honours Divisions ! The highlight was the Yr 9 Boys winning Gold in emphatic fashion over St Edmonds in a 3-1 final. Also the MVP of the division (12 teams) for the tournament was awarded to Grant Norman (team captain). Plenty of credit obviously goes to their Super coach Tony Parsons, who was well assisted by Greg Gall. With that backing they had to have a chance !!

With good results across all divisions entered, there is a wave of volleyball talent building again amongst the Hawks !! Well done Harristown State High for putting Toowoomba on the volleyball map again !

More results at the QVA site

Another successful major event hosted by TVA (5-7 August). 136 Senior School teams from all over Queensland converged on Toowoomba to take part in this massive event. Over 1500 participants played the 420 games on 18 courts across 6 venues around Toowoomba. The venues were, Harristown State High (7 courts), USQ (3 courts), Toowoomba State High (2 courts), Concordia College (2 courts), St Joseph’s College (2 courts), Fairholme College (2 courts).

The results are available at the QVA site. Thanks to the many court managers supplied by TVA and the hard work put in by QVA venue managers and tournament directors.

Well, yet another successful tournament unfolded over the weekend of 23-24 July. 18 teams from Toowoomba (including some from Brisbane and Gatton) competed in 4 divisions. They included Harristown State High (3 teams), Toowoomba State High (Mt Lofty), Fairholme College, Concordia College (6 teams), UQ Gatton (2 teams), St Ursula’s (2 teams), MacGregor High School, The Gap High School and the QSSV U16 boys team.

While the divisional pools played the round robbin matches on the Saturday, the serious business of semis and finals were played out on the Sunday. Here are the results :

Women’s Reserve Grade – Fairholme 1 (Gold), UQ Gatton (Silver), (2-0), Concordia 2 (3rd), St Ursula’s 2 (4th) and Concordia 3 (5th).

Men’s Reserve Grade – Harristown Hawks Seniors (Gold), Concordia 1 (Silver), Mt Lofty (3rd), Concordia 2 (4th) and Concordia 3 (5th).

Women’s A-Grade – Harristown Hawks (Gold), UQ Gatton (Silver), St Ursula’s 1 (3rd) and MacGregor (4th).

Men’s A-Grade – Harristown Hawks Open (Gold), QSSV U16s (Silver), UQ Gatton (3rd) and The Gap (4th).

Competition was good and for the school teams, it was an excellent precursor to the Qld School Volleyball Champs to be held a couple of weekends later. Recognition must be given to TVA’s General Manager, Cheryl Norman, for her tireless efforts in confirming entries and producing match draws. Thanks must also go to Mr Greg Gall as Assistant Tournament Director, and we acknowledge the input provided by Mr Michael Schloss in assessing a number of our young Level One referees at this event.

3rd Round

2nd Week Draw