Temasek Polytechnic, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 – Volleyball mens teams Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and National University of Singapore (NUS) kept their spirits up during the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) games. Playing the best out of five sets, both teams endured for the whole nine yards.
The first set was won by NYP but NUS retaliated by winning the second set and third set consecutively. The NUS team earns an advantage with its players at the center court, whose accurate setting skills helped the team to attack.
The fourth set began with much trepidation as NUS was leading 2-1. With good team understanding and high spirits, NUS begins by attacking furiously at their opponent. NYP rallied on despite the setback and slowly but surely, they were able to break through NUS's defence.
NYP's fight back came from the “power of three”, where three players were placed side by side, near the net. These three players – Lim Guoliang, Kia Jiajing and Jason Chew – were effective in blocking the opponent's ball from scoring and also helping to pip the ball to the other side of the court. NYP also accelerated on attacking with backcourt spikes. Their efforts paid off and NYP won the forth set, tying the game at 2-2. The atmosphere reached a new level with both teams coming to a deuce and the deciding set determining who will be the eventual winner.
NUS was on fire during the final set. From the very first serve, their target is to secure a point at the opponent. With seamless teamwork by NUS, they managed to race to score eight points before NYP managed to finally respond with a point. NUS continued their domination despite NYP’s resilience and their fast and decisive attacks resulted in the fifth set to end 15-7.
Mr. Lam, a spectator from Meridian Junior college, remarks, “Both teams are well-matched and two teams have close scores throughout the whole time. The two teams also tend to commit the same mistakes, for example, when the player touches the net.”
Kia Jiajing, team captain from NYP adds, “I think we played very well today. The team moved together as one and we did much better than compared to our previous matches. What's important is that we were able to cover each other and we really played like brothers.”