Under 16 girls’ challenge blunted

England teams’ results (Acqua Pradis Winter Cup) (London players in national under 16 teams)

Boys’ wins take them to ninth place

With three local players in the girls’ team, Alexys Archie, Sylvie Stokes and Lisa Canevari and five in the boys, Enrique Bello, Jake Sanders, Philip Russ, Peter Soczewka and Nahome Tewelde, London interest has continued in this week-end tournament in Italy.

The girls made an early Saturday morning start against one of the local teams, Cordenons that had won Group B and the opposition looked superior to all the previous days’. The England squad again produced excellent volleyball but, after losing a very close first set, proved to be second best.

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By mid-morning the boys were on court against the German side Thuringen that had finished fourth in Group B and enjoyed a thoroughly well deserved victory, their first win of the week-end and in two sets.

At tea time the girls were back on court to face a sixth Italian side, CFV Etigraph and produced their very best volleyball to win the second set after going down 23:25 in the first but were unable to sustain their form as the Italian girls raised their game to fresh heights in the deciding set.

England U16 boys tournament finished that evening when they played Slovenian side, Ljubijana for ninth place and achieved it with a confidence boosting win, mastering a talented opposition after a very close opening set.

There was a ten o’clock start on Sunday and competition began with England girls playing Ecoservice, the Italian side they had beaten in a very close group stage match on Friday. The game would to decide who took seventh place in the tournament England again won the opening set but, with the much larger crowd supporting them, the Italians make them fight for every point and went on to win the next two sets by seven points and five respectively. Their brave adventure was over and the very real achievement of eighth place tinged with disappointment. The tournament was eventually won by Tianjin, the junior team of a top Chinese professional club who, in the final, beat Cordenons, a side that had had to work hard to overcome this English opposition. The boys can similarly encourage themselves. Their tournament was won by Milano whom they had made to work hard in the group stage, and the group match score was closer that the final’s.

London congratulates all eight of its participants. The association in proud of their achievements and looks forward to them representing it in national inter-regional competition in 2020.

Results

Day 2

Girls
England U16 girls lost to Cordenons, 22:25 17:25
England U16 girls lost to CFV Etigraph, 23:25 25:19 9:15

Boys
England U16 boys beat Thuringen, 25:19 25:16
England U16 boys beat Ljubijana, 25:20 25:15

Day 3
Girls
England U16 girls lost to Ecoservice, 27:25 18:25 10:15