Temasek Polytechnic, Friday, 9 January 2009 - The women’s volleyball team from Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) followed up with their demolition over Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a defeat over Republic Polytechnic (RP) in three straight sets at the 2009 Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic Games.
The team got off to a good start, winning the opening set 25-8 and the second 25-8 easily.
It looked as though the third set would be a breeze, but Republic Polytechnic came out during the third set on pretty even grounds matching SIM in all areas.
At 5-5, RP started to pull away and began to lead.
SIM, perhaps was complacent, had made many numerous errors while RP's morale started to grow.
At one stage, RP took a 17-14 lead at one point. At this stage, SIM called a timeout and this was the turning point of the game.
SIM came out with renewed vigour and took control of the match. They scored 2 quick points with no reply from RP immediately.
At 17-16, RP called for a timeout to try to settle down the RP players but to no avail.
SIM continued in their domination and raced on to finish the set 25-23, winning RP in 3 straight sets.
Teo Chiek Shan, coach for the women’s volley team from Singapore Institute of Management, revealed, "At 17-14, I made a tactical switch. RP was controlling too much of the game."
"We need to counter that and I had asked for the setter to change the setting position."
Despite the win, Teo felt that the team lost focus towards the end of the game.
“We played well in the first two sets, and I think we could have done much better in the last set,” Teo said
“We won the third set narrowly because we lost focus.”
RP was a force to be reckoned with 2 years ago. Since then, they may have lost their top position in the tournament since star player, Rena Sim, left the team.
Sim left the team due to knee injuries and has not participated in volleyball tournaments since.
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