A smashing start for the Sharks!

Fortunately Stefano dramatically exposed the
weakness of the net fixings during the warm up...

The Sharks opened the season in style, with a show of strength from Stefano in the warm-up for his last fixture with the team... The opposition were duly intimidated, and after substantial delay while the net was made safe, the Sharks made short work of Reading Aces Mixed. The rather disconnected Reading team did not have much to offer in the first set and with Felipe setting, Masia playing opposite, Helen and Stefano through the middle and Flora and Marco on the outside (welcome to the Sharks, Marco!!!), it was over fairly quickly. However, the Sharks relaxed a little too much in the second set and with the Aces starting to play a little more coherently, the Sharks had to ramp things up a notch to win the match. MVP was Felipe for great defense and setting.

The second match was versus Spikeos Mixed 2. The Sharks were suffering from reffing a long, cold interim match (with a creative score board!) and a combination of great cover from Spikeos plus unforced errors from the Sharks meant the loss of the first set. However, the Sharks rallied, and with support from our mascot, Headington, took the second set after a bit of a fight. The deciding set started off fairly close but the Sharks were ahead at the switch and with a great show of team spirit won the set and the match. MVP was Stefano for fantastic work at the net.

The Sharks will miss Stefano enormously but wish him the best of luck in Italy - although he will never find another team quite like the Sharks...












Written by Helen - who doesn't have the scoresheets