ACC Sport
Cricket
Coming off a Grand Final defeat in Year 7 (2015), the St Bede’s College Year 8 Cricket team were out for revenge this year and revenge they got!! Going through the home and away season with five wins and one loss, the boys earnt the right to host the Grand Final on the College front oval in front of a loud and boisterous home ground.
Our opponents in this game were Whitefriars College , who, as anyone involved in ACC sport would know, are our fiercest rivals. A win in this game would be even sweeter considering the opponent.
Whitefriars College won the toss and elected to bat, managing to scrape together a score of 7/99 off their 20 overs. St Bede’s College commenced the run chase solidly, however, had some hiccups along the way. The game was played on a knife edge with both sides being in control of the game at different stages.
Fast forward to the final delivery of the game where St Bede’s College required 3 runs to win. Considering the small size of the ground, running 3 was unlikely so a boundary was needed for victory. Dale Haycroft (who hasn’t batted for the entire season) was on strike as the ball was bowled. He cracked a cover drive straight to the fieldsman at cover. Fortunately for us (and quite unfortunately for the Whitefriars College students) the fielder misfielded and the ball raced away to the fence for FOUR.
St Bede’s College were PREMIERS!! The boys charged out to the centre of the ground celebrating which was followed by a rousing rendition of the team song!!
Special mention to Ethan Wright who was awarded the Best & Fairest for the season after being the leading run scorer for the team along with being a more than handy opening bowler. Ethan was assisted by Max Sullivan and Corey Barden who made some very useful contributions with the bat. Harvey Burke and Vikrant Vinodhram were the pick of the bowlers throughout the season.
Guy Martyn - Coach
Volleyball
From a total of 77 students showing up at try outs, 18 were selected to make up the Year 8 Volleyball A and B teams for 2016. Both teams displayed signs of a promising season to come from early training sessions. A loss second round to Parade College kept us in check, but the boys showed great strength and resilience to climb their way up the ladder! Fifth round of the home and away season was a crucial game for both teams playing against Whitefriars College. The A team went down in a tight contest, but the B team managed to take out a win. The vital victory enabled them to secure a second place in the home and away season, while the A team finished up in fourth place.
Finals play offs resulted in a rematch for the A team against Whitefriars for 3rd/4th position, while the B team played off in the premiership game against the famous volleyball championship school, Mazenod College. The A team had a disappointing loss again to Whitefriars, losing 3 sets to 0, 75 points to 53. The students still ended the season with some great plays that they should be all proud off. Matt Dunne, Max McLoughlin, Ethan Hale and Liam Haynes played terrifically using their height well for some spectacular spikes and blocks, while Josh Duscher, Liam Rolleman, Flynn Martin and Sunny Peckett offered tremendous support keeping the ball in play.
Going in the Grand Final, the B team didn’t have high hopes. While we never versed Mazenod in the home and away season, their reputation in volleyball preceded them, and their first place position backed it up. Determined to play their best, the boys went out onto the court with great enthusiasm! From only the first handful of points, you could see they came to win! Luis Perpina, Harry Kilfoye played as an impenetrable wall, blocking and returning nearly every ball Mazenod send over. Liam Hall hit hard with some huge spikes, while Ben McCauley and Oliver Zalakos took advantage of their positioning and perfectly placed the ball out of their reach. The boys were supported well by Fintan Glackin, Lachlan Carrigan, and Jack Flavelle, who all played their best game of volleyball yet, and weren’t going to let Mazenod get the better of the team. Shilo Uberti supported with gusto from the sidelines, itching to play, but carried an unfortunate ankle injury from the day before.
With every single player performing their best game of volleyball yet, the B team were able to take out the first two sets, resulting in a premiership victory! A third set had to be played, and went down by 3 points. Final results were St Bede’s College
2 sets 72 points, to Mazenod 1 set 61 points. It was an outstanding win for the underdogs, and students, Conor Mac Curtain (assistant coach) and I couldn’t be more thrilled! A big thank you to all the fellas for a great season, Ryan Mravljak and Michael Naughton for their support and especially to Conor Mac Curtain for all his wisdom and insight!
Lucas Carlson-Coach
Year 8 Volleyball
Year 9 ACC Volleyball was an exciting season filled with nail biting games and excellent results. Both A and B teams worked with enthusiasm and commitment to make it into the Grand Final against the mighty Mazenod who had a very successful track record. The students felt like the Western Bulldogs on Grand Final Day, going in as the underdogs, but they gave it their best and had a very exciting day. Both teams played brilliantly but unfortunately only the B's won despite a valiant effort by the A's.
Results: A team - Mazenod 3/75 defeated SBC 0/60. The first two sets were very close and we missed out by a few points. The B team was also fantastic and defeated Mazenod 2/73-1/56. It was a game with everyone on edge in the final set as both teams had one set all with the deciding third set going to St Bede’s College. I would like to thank the Sports Director Michael Naughton who offered tremendous support to this first time coach and our trainer Bojan Janjic from Melbourne Sports Institute who taught the students new skills and obviously some winning tactics. Special thanks to the teams who deserve to be proud as they worked hard to secure their places in the Grand Final.
A Team: Will Dingeldei, James Eadie, Noah Cuderman, Ronan Reilly, Kyle Yorke, Miles Bergman, Riley Mihailovic, Matt Casacelli and George Grey.
B Team: Charlie Yee, Charlie Worrell, Nick Gouzanis, Zac Watson, Rhys Hogan, Mitch Tsiros, Oskar McNair, Reuben Smith, Sam Smith and Zayne Kartal.
Loreta Murphy-Coach
Year 9 Volleyball
Tennis
Like the Western Bulldogs in the AFL this year, our Year 10 ACC Tennis team after a solid season began the finals as rank outsiders finishing fourth on the ladder. In the first semi-final, we travelled out to Essendon and played St Bernard’s College who finished top of the ladder, but after some hard fought matches, we won 7 sets to 5 sets in one of the biggest boil overs in recent times.
The Grand Final was played against Whitefriars College out in Donvale, again as underdogs, we began very well winning three out of the four doubles matches. The singles were always going to be very tough; it was a seesawing battle after we lost the first two singles games, bringing the match to 3-3 sets all. Matthew Gatti who was undefeated during the season won, as did Jack Langdon and Damon Schultz which swayed the balance of the match back in our favour 6-3; we were in the box seat. Unfortunately, we lost the next two sets, it was coming down to the wire 6-5 in our favour, but down on games. The grand final came down to the final match, a tie-breaker; 4-2 down, Matthew Gatti played five great points to win the set 9-8 and give us the victory!
Congratulations to Jackson Cowden Trent Alphonso, Nicholas Gale, Jack Langdon, Anthony Afferi, Matthew Gatti, Damon Schultz and Matthew Reiter who played and won the ACC Premiership on the day, together with Malcolm Liddell, Joel Bright and Matteo Barba who also played during the season on a fine effort. A team effort in every sense of the word.
Damon Jacobs
