Glenny ‘Intermediate Girls’ WIN State Table Tennis Title
Breaking News…. We have another State Title winning sports team at GWSC this year! Our Intermediate Girls Table Tennis team recently travelled to MSAC Stadiums and took out the 2024 ‘School Sport Victoria’ Intermediate Girls Table Tennis State Championship.
It has indeed been a ‘long’, but ‘strong’, season of ‘pong’ at Glenny this year…. Our Intermediate Girls had to win their way through the Waverley Division and then the Eastern Metropolitan Region Finals in order to qualify for the ‘SSV’ State Championships. Amazingly, we didn’t drop a single match all the way through the Division and Region Finals, a pleasing trend which continued on during the State Finals….
Congratulations to Chloe Chen, Yashvi Shah and Natalie Trinh on winning their third consecutive State Championship in Table Tennis. Well done to Chloe Yu, Christina Cao and Fei Fei Du on winning their first ‘SSV’ gold medallions, we can’t wait to see how many more will be draped around your necks in the not-too distant future….
We drew Yarrawonga College in the first round of the State Final qualifiers and they proved to be a tricky adversary. After three solid victories in the singles, our doubles pairings then cruised towards victory with a couple of convincing wins. In the second round of qualifying, we came up against Maribyrnong Sports Academy. Our girls were pushed to five sets in two of the singles encounters, but we managed to win all four of these contests to secure our spot in the State Semi-Final. Our dynamic doubles duos then made it a clean sweep against Maribyrnong to finish the tie 6 matches to nil. Our final qualifying game was against Nagle College from Bairnsdale. Again, we won all six matches to progress through to the cross-over semi final as the number one seed from Pool B.
As the second seeded team in Pool A, East Doncaster Secondary College were pitted against our GWSC girls in the second state semi-final. Three of our singles matches went to five sets, but ultimately Glenny were victorious in all four rubbers. It was incredible to see the deft touch, power, placement and angles that our Inter Girls used against their opponents to secure their wins. Our doubles pairings were again dominant in their two matches, winning both comfortably to set up a State Final showdown with the select-entry Nossal High School.
Nossal came to play, piling on the pressure early to try and unsettle our quartet of singles combatants. The Nossal girls made a real statement by winning the first set in three of the four finals matches. Two of their players then went on to lead 2 sets to nil after the second stanza, whilst our first and fourth seeds went two up and all square respectively against their opponents. Chloe Yu then closed out the A1 singles match 3 sets to nil to give GWSC the early lead in the match. In true Glenny spirit, our three remaining singles players dug in to eventually send all of their matches to a fifth and deciding set. Unfortunately, they all ran out of gas in their final sets and Nossal were up three rubbers to one in the final. Our student coaches really stood up in the moments between the singles matches and the doubles. They rallied our team together and stressed the importance of never giving up, playing out every point and believing in one another through to the very end of the match.
Our doubles duos were determined and strode out to their designated end of the tables to commence the two deciding rubbers. Our A1 pairing of Chloe Yu and Yashvi Shah appeared in a hurry to finish off their match, winning 3 sets to nil in very rapid time. They also only allowed their Nossal opponents to register five points across three sets, which was an amazing achievement. On the neighbouring table, Fei Fei Du and Christina Cao had a real battle on their hands. The Nossal players threw caution to the wind in the first set, reeling off some amazing winners after a number of intense rallies. This allowed them to take the first set and also the ascendancy in the final, as they were now one set ahead of our Glenny team total for the match. In short, the side who took out this second doubles contest would win the State Grand Final, so the pressure was well and truly on. Our Glenny girls then gallantly fought back, playing some terrific team table tennis to take out the second set and level the rubber and match. It truly was a see-sawing encounter, with both teams delivering some damaging shots from both sides of their body as the third set went past 11 points all. Eventually, the Nossal side made the most of some very lucky moments at the tail end of the set, firstly finding the back edge of the table with a looping mishit and then their next shot hitting the net cord and dropping onto our side of the table to secure a 2-1 lead. The atmosphere was electric, particularly when it was so silent at the start of each point that you could hear the players spinning the ball on their blade. Then, as the rallies began to extend out, the cheering from both school sides also started to echo out into the vast expanse of the MSAC table tennis hall.
With the continued encouragement and support of their student coaches and team mates, Christina and Fei Fei dug in and played some inspired shots to secure the fourth set, sending the State Final to a fifth and title deciding set. The intensity and standard of play went up a notch, with both teams trading blows from either end of the table. Before you could say ‘#PongStrong!’, the deciding set was all level at 7 points each. The silence was deafening as Christina produced two sublime slice serves to give Glenny a two-point buffer. Fei Fei then fearlessly faced two heavy serves from her Nossal opponent, scorching the first back over the net with a ferocious forehand that was positioned perfectly between the opposing pair. Glenny were now 10-7 up and on Championship Point…..The Nossal serve sizzled and spun, but Fei Fei hit a beautiful backhand which landed just inside the line at the ‘t’ and then moved swiftly past her opponent. Our Intermediate Girls then swamped one another as they realised they had just won the State Table Tennis Title! Soon after, they all graciously lined up next to the table to shake hands with their opponents from Nossal and offer them three cheers and congratulations on a fantastic final!
During her victory speech at the medal presentation, our captain Chloe Yu made special mention of our dedicated team of student coaches and thanked Queenie Su, Carly Jiang, Lucas Lum, Vinh Vuong and Leo Zheng for all their time and efforts supporting the team in 2024. Chloe also gave a shout out to the two staff supervisors of this team, Miss Amy Wollmann and Mr Mark Robinson, who supervised and ran 14 training sessions across two terms to prepare this team for the State Championships. Fellow team mates then also chipped in and said that the nutrition station and ‘no sweat’ wristbands that Miss Wollmann and Mr Robinson provided the team with were second to none and gave the team the edge over their fellow competitors.
Kudos again to our victorious GWSC ‘Intermediate Girls’ Table Tennis Team who are the 2024 ‘School Sport Victoria’ State Champions!
#PongStrong!
Cheers,
Mr Mark Robinson.
Glen Waverley Secondary College
Congratulations to Chloe Chen, Yashvi Shah and Natalie Trinh on winning their third consecutive State Championship in Table Tennis. Well done to Chloe Yu, Christina Cao and Fei Fei Du on winning their first ‘SSV’ gold medallions, we can’t wait to see how many more will be draped around your necks in the not-too distant future….
We drew Yarrawonga College in the first round of the State Final qualifiers and they proved to be a tricky adversary. After three solid victories in the singles, our doubles pairings then cruised towards victory with a couple of convincing wins. In the second round of qualifying, we came up against Maribyrnong Sports Academy. Our girls were pushed to five sets in two of the singles encounters, but we managed to win all four of these contests to secure our spot in the State Semi-Final. Our dynamic doubles duos then made it a clean sweep against Maribyrnong to finish the tie 6 matches to nil. Our final qualifying game was against Nagle College from Bairnsdale. Again, we won all six matches to progress through to the cross-over semi final as the number one seed from Pool B.
As the second seeded team in Pool A, East Doncaster Secondary College were pitted against our GWSC girls in the second state semi-final. Three of our singles matches went to five sets, but ultimately Glenny were victorious in all four rubbers. It was incredible to see the deft touch, power, placement and angles that our Inter Girls used against their opponents to secure their wins. Our doubles pairings were again dominant in their two matches, winning both comfortably to set up a State Final showdown with the select-entry Nossal High School.
Nossal came to play, piling on the pressure early to try and unsettle our quartet of singles combatants. The Nossal girls made a real statement by winning the first set in three of the four finals matches. Two of their players then went on to lead 2 sets to nil after the second stanza, whilst our first and fourth seeds went two up and all square respectively against their opponents. Chloe Yu then closed out the A1 singles match 3 sets to nil to give GWSC the early lead in the match. In true Glenny spirit, our three remaining singles players dug in to eventually send all of their matches to a fifth and deciding set. Unfortunately, they all ran out of gas in their final sets and Nossal were up three rubbers to one in the final. Our student coaches really stood up in the moments between the singles matches and the doubles. They rallied our team together and stressed the importance of never giving up, playing out every point and believing in one another through to the very end of the match.
Our doubles duos were determined and strode out to their designated end of the tables to commence the two deciding rubbers. Our A1 pairing of Chloe Yu and Yashvi Shah appeared in a hurry to finish off their match, winning 3 sets to nil in very rapid time. They also only allowed their Nossal opponents to register five points across three sets, which was an amazing achievement. On the neighbouring table, Fei Fei Du and Christina Cao had a real battle on their hands. The Nossal players threw caution to the wind in the first set, reeling off some amazing winners after a number of intense rallies. This allowed them to take the first set and also the ascendancy in the final, as they were now one set ahead of our Glenny team total for the match. In short, the side who took out this second doubles contest would win the State Grand Final, so the pressure was well and truly on. Our Glenny girls then gallantly fought back, playing some terrific team table tennis to take out the second set and level the rubber and match. It truly was a see-sawing encounter, with both teams delivering some damaging shots from both sides of their body as the third set went past 11 points all. Eventually, the Nossal side made the most of some very lucky moments at the tail end of the set, firstly finding the back edge of the table with a looping mishit and then their next shot hitting the net cord and dropping onto our side of the table to secure a 2-1 lead. The atmosphere was electric, particularly when it was so silent at the start of each point that you could hear the players spinning the ball on their blade. Then, as the rallies began to extend out, the cheering from both school sides also started to echo out into the vast expanse of the MSAC table tennis hall.
With the continued encouragement and support of their student coaches and team mates, Christina and Fei Fei dug in and played some inspired shots to secure the fourth set, sending the State Final to a fifth and title deciding set. The intensity and standard of play went up a notch, with both teams trading blows from either end of the table. Before you could say ‘#PongStrong!’, the deciding set was all level at 7 points each. The silence was deafening as Christina produced two sublime slice serves to give Glenny a two-point buffer. Fei Fei then fearlessly faced two heavy serves from her Nossal opponent, scorching the first back over the net with a ferocious forehand that was positioned perfectly between the opposing pair. Glenny were now 10-7 up and on Championship Point…..The Nossal serve sizzled and spun, but Fei Fei hit a beautiful backhand which landed just inside the line at the ‘t’ and then moved swiftly past her opponent. Our Intermediate Girls then swamped one another as they realised they had just won the State Table Tennis Title! Soon after, they all graciously lined up next to the table to shake hands with their opponents from Nossal and offer them three cheers and congratulations on a fantastic final!
During her victory speech at the medal presentation, our captain Chloe Yu made special mention of our dedicated team of student coaches and thanked Queenie Su, Carly Jiang, Lucas Lum, Vinh Vuong and Leo Zheng for all their time and efforts supporting the team in 2024. Chloe also gave a shout out to the two staff supervisors of this team, Miss Amy Wollmann and Mr Mark Robinson, who supervised and ran 14 training sessions across two terms to prepare this team for the State Championships. Fellow team mates then also chipped in and said that the nutrition station and ‘no sweat’ wristbands that Miss Wollmann and Mr Robinson provided the team with were second to none and gave the team the edge over their fellow competitors.
Kudos again to our victorious GWSC ‘Intermediate Girls’ Table Tennis Team who are the 2024 ‘School Sport Victoria’ State Champions!
#PongStrong!
Cheers,
Mr Mark Robinson.
Glen Waverley Secondary College