Fury of the Storm Women Leaves Phoenix Flightless

The Adelaide storm bought the lightning and thunder with them, dominating in their second away match of the 2023 Scape Australian Volleyball Super League against the NSW Phoenix at Olympic Park. The fierce serve from the Storm was too much for the inexperienced Phoenix team, taking the round 2 win 1-4 (16-18, 6-18, 11-18, 3-18, 18-17).

Storm captain Rebecca Reeve led her team to a narrow win in the first set 16-18 before unleashing fury in the following three sets. After going down to the Vipers last week they took time to regroup and came out firing. The Phoenix weren’t able to weather the Storm going down 6-18, 11-18 and 3-18.

Storm youngster Cameron Zajer, recently back from the Youth Commonwealth Games with silver medal in hand, made her debut in the Scape Super League and was exceptional both in the front court and the back.

Phoenix captain Lacey Bruce managed to rally the troops and take the final set 18-17, a much needed high going into next week’s match against the Heat in Canberra. Harriet Gillson and Matauaina Gibbons were the standouts for the young, inexperienced Phoenix side. Coach Chris Todd said both players created great opportunities, but unfortunately the team couldn’t capitalise on these.

Both teams were missing the key experience of their national team representatives, but this allowed for both sides to bring in some new, younger players, giving them their first taste of the Scape Super League.

The Storm have set themselves up for a good run with three home games left before finals. They will be hoping to maintain the momentum when they come up against the Queensland Pirates next weekend.  Meanwhile the Phoenix now have some work to do if they are to keep their finals hopes alive, with two away matches before returning to Sydney Olympic Park in round 5.