St Lawrence spikers crowned U-16 champs

The victorious St Lawrence (Borivli) U-16 volleyball team at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

St Lawrence High School (Borivli) girls were in good nick and hardly put a foot wrong as they scurried to a fluent straight sets 2-0 victory against Cambridge International School (Kandivli) in the girls' under-12 final of the MSSA inter-schools volleyball tournament 2019, at Azad Maidan yesterday. Coincidently, both St. Lawrence and Cambridge International belong to Ryan Group of Schools.

The Borivli team was well organised in every department. Their serves were the key to their success as they won most of their points from the mix of serves before closing out the match 25-18, 25-11 to emerge champions and left the Shri. Sara Rane was the star performer for St Lawrence as her jump-smash serves proved too hot to handle for the opposition players who struggled to return them.

St Lawrence's defending was equally proficient as they managed to keep the ball in play with some fine returns. That put the rivals under pressure and forced them into committing errors, which worked in favour of the Borivli team.

Sara is the only girl in the U-14 category, who has a jump-smash serve and she was happy that her powerful serves helped the school win. "I having been playing volleyball for the last two years and during practice sessions, I observed my senior teammates Ayusha Kulabkar (U-16) and Shruti Korde (U-14) serving with a jump-smash and felt that I could also do the same. I practiced it and gradually got a hang of it. I'm glad it's working for the team," said Sara.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates