By David Berry

A fade out in the second half of the fifth set against Dandenong saw Volleyball Horsham Heat’s women’s team suffer its first loss of the state league season.

The men played their best game so far this season, against Alliance, only to go down in a tight five-setter.

The women started the day with a good win against Latrobe Uni in straight sets, highlighted by a monster comeback in the third set, where the team rallied from 16-21 down to win 26-24.

Team captain Laelah Robertson was full of praise for her young team after the win.

“We played our youngest team so far and those younger players stood up when needed, which was great,” she said.

“Big shout out to Alex Bebero who went back at 22-24 and served the next four points to win the match for us. That is showing nerves of steel in a pressure situation, which speaks volumes for both Alex and our team.”

In an afternoon game against Dandenong a massive first-set set the tone for what turned out to be a nailbiting five-setter, with Dandenong taking the first set 29-27.

Robertson said the young Dandenong team just kept getting everything back.

“They were very consistent with one massive hitter who we couldn’t stop, but the girls showed good steel to push the game into a fifth set, winning the second and fourth sets, but we couldn’t quite go the distance and full credit to Dandenong,” she said.

The story of the day for the men was how close they came to winning their first game.

The team won the first set and led Alliance two sets to one, but could not sustain their efforts for a full five sets.

Captain Noah Werry said the game was tight from start to finish and it took their opponents all their experience to get over the Horsham team.

“We were our own worst enemy in the fifth set, making five service errors, mostly at crucial times, so we will learn from that and use it to our advantage going forward,” he said.

“We are still figuring out what is our best combination, as we have depth but not experience at this level. We will keep working hard as we know that first win is just around the corner.”

Both teams will use the next three weeks to prepare for their first home game on May 2, when they take on Derrimut Knights at Horsham basketball stadium.

Results from round two:

Men – Alliance defeated Volleyball Horsham Heat 3-2: 25-27, 17-25, 21-25, 25-20, 16-14. Dandenong defeated Volleyball Horsham Heat 3-0: 25-18, 25-21, 25-15.

Women – Volleyball Horsham Heat defeated Latrobe Uni 3-0: 25-23, 25-7, 26-24. Dandenong defeated Volleyball Horsham Heat 3-2: 29-27, 22-25, 25-20, 17-25, 15-9.