We hosted a visit from girls from the Belgrano School, Buenos Aires on Friday February 3rd. They brought a full bus of 70 girls for the first volleyball session of their visit. Wirral Grammar girls, sporting their new kit, had to play games in 3 different age groups, starting with U15s at 4.30pm.

Considering most of them had never played 6-a-side volleyball on a full sized court before Wirral Grammar U15 team did very well. Well lead by Libby Canham who managed to keep the payers in order and in position, the girls played some half-decent volleyball. Trying and often succeeding to make passes and play 3-touch volleyball our girls won their match against the youngest Agentinian team by two sets to nil, a win built on Chloe’s serving, Issy and Liv’s play at the net, and Beth’s infectious enthusiasm. The assembled crowd gave good noise and support and Beth’s excitment at her serve that won the match nearly brought the house down. Hopefully we’ll see some more of these girls in Volleyball shirts in future.

The second match gave us the opportunity to play our more experienced U16 team and they did very well winning 2-0. They served strongly, bossed the net, and chased and convered much better than their Argentinian opponents. Libby, playing her second match of the evening had an excellent game as setter, Helena, played the opposite position well and served very well, our middle players were strong on the net, both hitting some nice winners, Lily moved and covered really well at 4/5 and Abi hit some strong attacking shots from 4. A satisfying perfomance from the girls and good preparation for Sunday’s EVA U16 Grand Prix.

The first two Belgrano teams had been pretty weak but their senior team were a different proposition. Unfortunately due to work commitments, holidays and injury we were missing 10 of our Wirral U18 squad. Our team really wasn’t balanced and despite some inspirational covering work from Eloise we were never really in the game, going down 2-0. It would have been nice to play the visitors with something more like our U18 first 6 - that would have been a good match and a fitting climax to an enjoyable volleyball event.