THE Collie Volleyball Association sent two teams to Perth for the State Championships on the long weekend with a men’s and a women’s B grade team.

The men’s team defended their title as the B country champs.

Teams they defeated on Saturday were the State under 17s, metro teams Chequers and Team Green and Albany, all two sets to nil, which made them finish on top of their pool leading to the finals on Sunday.

Collie played the Northam Old Crocs in the semi final which they defeated quite easily 2-0.

Albany also won their semi final.

This set up a rematch in the grand final for the country B grade champions. Jonno Morton and Warren Timms displayed excellent defensive blocking and hard attacking spikes which gave Collie a massive advantage from the start.

First year players Kyle Hulls and James Greenhouse played exceptional volleyball.

Their passing from the back court and outside hitting certainly got the job done for the team.

The setters, Mauro Vennitti and Dave De Angelis did a great job controlling the game and setting up all the attacking plays along with spiking well when in the front court.

After 80 mins, Collie eventually won two sets to one, (25-20, 18-25, 25-23).

Collie then played off against the top metro team, the Malaga Guns but lost out losing 3 sets to 0.

The Collie women played three games on Saturday, first drawing with Mandurah, beating the state under 17s but losing to an experienced metro team Chequers.

The players were Deb De Angelis, Toni Ford, Adrienne De Angelis, Maryanne Crowhurst, new comers Jas Hulls, Fe Kirkpatrick and Deanna Eastcott.

The girls scraped into the semi finals and played Albany. Albany being an experienced outfit beat the Collie girls but in a hard fought close game.

Albany went on to win the state champs.

The girls did themselves proud especially new players Jas, Dee and Fe, while Deb won the women’s B most valuable player award.