Storm Men Rain on Vipers Parade

The Melbourne Vipers welcomed Adelaide Storm for the opening round of the revamped Scape Australian Volleyball Super League (Scape AVSL), writing a brand new chapter in the ongoing Victoria-South Australia rivalry book. Under the new format, both teams played 5 compulsory sets, first to 18. The Adelaide Storm, led by household names Harrison Peacock and Nathan Roberts, won 4-1 (16-18, 18-17, 18-16, 18-16, 18-17), earning 8 Competition points on the Scape AVSL ladder. Each set went down to the wire and, with no timeouts, both teams had to rely on their own resilience and composure on court in order to be first to 18.

The hosts started hot early through the experienced former Volleyroo Paul Sanderson and rising star Scott Johnson, taking the first set 18-16. But this was just the eye of the Storm as Adelaide called for a POWERPLAY while 8-10 down in the second set to regain momentum. Despite some heroic efforts from Paul Sanderson, swinging hard on a perfect paradise ball to take the scores to 16-16, the thunder of the Storm was too strong taking the second set 18-17.

The Storm, through captain Roberts, continued to match every challenge the Vipers set for them. Harrison Peacock showed his class in the front court too, the former Volleyroo setter pinpointing the likes of Roberts, Josh Thorpe and Simon Coat at the net. Storm completed an impressive triple-block on Paul Sanderson’s swing to take Set 4 and ultimately the match. While celebrations were had for the South Australians, there was still another set to play and Championship points were still up for grabs as we headed into a fifth and final set. Despite the Storm already taking the win, the fifth set was no dead-rubber as the Vipers were still a chance at a Bonus Championship point available to a team who loses but is within 10 or less points over the course of the match of their opponents. Vipers were able to test the Storm again but to no avail, losing 16-18 and giving the Adelaide Storm 2 additional Championship points for the set win and a bonus point to the Melbourne Vipers.

While the 4-1 set score line suggests a domination by the Storm, both teams were evenly matched throughout the course of the night giving the near 500 fans in attendance absolute value for money. With Round 1 now out of the way, we can expect both teams to take a lot of learnings out of their match-up tonight should they meet again in the Scape AVSL Finals.