Heat Men Too Hot For Pirates

The fierce historic rivalry between Queensland and Canberra has followed them into the new Scape Australian Volleyball Super League, with another intense entry in their long story coming as the Canberra Heat travelled to Iona College to take on the Scape Queensland Pirates for the opening round, resulting in an important 1-4 win for the Heat.

The Heat boasted impressive international talent with Volleyroos Middle Trent O’Dea and Opposite Matt Aubrey causing havoc for the Pirates side for the majority of the match. Queensland looked a little different with former Pirates and Volleyroos setter Ben Bell returning to the team for the first time since 2019.

But things started poorly for the Pirates, losing Bell to an ankle injury early in the first set and being forced to bring in debutant Oliver Merritt to the match slightly earlier than anticipated. The Heat took full advantage and claimed the first two sets 9-18 and 10-18 respectively.

Queensland found some much-needed form in the third set, winning it 18-12, with Connor Rudder and Brad Sting finding the floor and Coach Bryce Kelly making clever use of the new powerplay rule which gives double points for every point won by the powerplay team in their next three rallies.

While it looked like the match would go down to a deciding fifth set, the Canberra Heat were too good, and the experience of Setter Nic Borgeaud led the team to a comfortable 4-1 victory.