Coverage of the Association Cup Finals is to be televised on Setanta Sports Ireland's "Sport Nationwide" programme on the following dates:
Thursday May 8th at 19:15
Friday May 9th at 10:30
Friday May 9th at 14:35
Sunday May 11th at 20:15
Monday May 12th at 22:00
Tuesday May 13th at 19:30
Sunday May 18th at 18:00
Reports
Men’s Final:
AerLingus1 started the nervier of the two sides having missed their shot at Premier-32 glory the week previous. And having not featured in a Cup final since 2005, in comparison to Trinity’s amazing run of final appearances in recent years, it was indeed Trinity who started with the big-day adrenalin firing on all cylinders, with the link play of Mark Heffernan and Enrico Perla helping the Trinity men to a 2-0 lead and giving them one hand on the cup ...or so they thought!
AerLingus1 revived in the 3rd set to show their true form and belief, reminiscent of what they have shown their league campaign prior to the Cup final. Matthew Carroll was beginning to dent Trinity’s defence with his front court attacks while equally as hard to handle was his serving exploits. While Trinity's reliable hitting from Hugh Nohilly was causing problems in the AerLingus defence, the introduction of Arthur Szpak also proved to be a key point in the game as he played a big part not only in helping the ALSAA men win the 3rd set, but also to level the match in the 4th, at two-apiece, with Trinity’s short-cover found suspect at some crucial moments as they battled in both sets to overturn AerLingus’ leads.
One of the highlights of the game to this point was the battle of the two liberos – AerLingus’ Julien DeCraecker and Trinity’s Lubor Halanda were putting on extraordinary individual performances to keep their teams in the game when things were going wrong elsewhere, and the 5th set and tie-break was to be the telling of which one was going to help their team to Cup victory. And it was to be AerLingus1 that gained the best momentum as they raced into the change around 8-3 ahead. Trinity did battle back, but the damage was done as AerLingus held of the challenge and pressure of the experienced Cup side to win with an emphatic comeback result in a game that was absorbing by all accounts and very much thrilling to the large crowd in attendance. Trinity did not leave empty handed however as their Italian hitter Enrico Perla was awarded the MVP accolade.
Coverage of the Association Cup Finals is to be televised on Setanta Sports Ireland's "Sport Nationwide" programme on the following dates:
Thursday May 8th at 19:15
Friday May 9th at 10:30
Friday May 9th at 14:35
Sunday May 11th at 20:15
Monday May 12th at 22:00
Tuesday May 13th at 19:30
Sunday May 18th at 18:00
Women’s Final:
It was 3rd against 5th from the women’s Premier-32 League as UCD, present in every Final since 2004, started out as early favourites against Santry who were last in the Final in 2003. Santry had a slight edge over their Belfield rivals for most of the first set, however were hauled back in the latter half thanks to cross-court kills from last year’s Final MVP Alena Dvorakova and line and cross-court kills from Noemi Kuncik.
A narrow win for the UCD girls in the 1st set, and while putting up a similar performance in the 2nd set, Santry were now oozing into gear with increased confidence and a never-say-die attitude. Their front court attacks were beginning to find the right spots in the UCD rear-guard, with Santry’s Olive Rossiter, playing against her former team with whom she won 2 Association Cups, punished UCD’s one-blocker system on every occasion. Thanks to this and an on-coming defence, Santry were soon level, and were only getting started knowing they had nothing to lose in this tie.
And with that in mind, Santry were now giving as good as they getting, if not better as UCD were now starting to find it hard to return the same form and were under severe pressure themselves to defend their title. Santry raced into a commanding lead in the 3rd set and showing true form, equal to that of their opening day League win against UCD. Olive Rossiter was once again the main threat pulling the strings for the Santry girls while UCD’s heavily relied-on wing attacks were not only being finely-anticipated, but were also being smothered and defended well by a now fantastic Santry defence. Santry snatched the lead, 2-1 and once again were asking tough questions of their opposition.
And the defending champions were to have all but the kitchen sink thrown at them again in the 4th set as Santry didn’t relax, with strong serving and attacking forcing some way-ward passing in UCD’s defence and setter Joey Cardiff having to chase despairingly and helplessly to keep the ball in-court. Yet when UCD did attack, their options were now limited as Gemma Garvan and Jennifer Lawlor were defending for their lives and not giving an inch in the back court to their opposition. An emphatic win for Santry in the 4th and final set, 25-10, led to them being crowned the Association Cup Champions for 2008, with Jennifer Lawlor rewarded as the Final’s MVP for an incredible performance in defence.
Coverage of the Association Cup Finals is to be televised on Setanta Sports Ireland's "Sport Nationwide" programme on the following dates:
Coverage of the Association Cup Finals is to be televised on Setanta Sports Ireland's "
AerLingus1 started the nervier of the two sides having missed their shot at Premier-32 glory the week previous. And having not featured in a Cup final since 2005, in comparison to Trinity’s amazing run of final appearances in recent years, it was indeed Trinity who started with the big-day adrenalin firing on all cylinders, with the link play of Mark Heffernan and Enrico Perla helping the Trinity men to a 2-0 lead and giving them one hand on the cup ...or so they thought!
AerLingus1 revived in the 3rd set to show their true form and belief, reminiscent of what they have shown their league campaign prior to the Cup final. Matthew Carroll was beginning to dent Trinity’s defence with his front court attacks while equally as hard to handle was his serving exploits. While Trinity's reliable hitting from Hugh Nohilly was causing problems in the AerLingus defence, the introduction of Arthur Szpak also proved to be a key point in the game as he played a big part not only in helping the ALSAA men win the 3rd set, but also to level the match in the 4th, at two-apiece, with Trinity’s short-cover found suspect at some crucial moments as they battled in both sets to overturn AerLingus’ leads.
One of the highlights of the game to this point was the battle of the two liberos – AerLingus’ Julien DeCraecker and Trinity’s Lubor Halanda were putting on extraordinary individual performances to keep their teams in the game when things were going wrong elsewhere, and the 5th set and tie-break was to be the telling of which one was going to help their team to Cup victory. And it was to be AerLingus1 that gained the best momentum as they raced into the change around 8-3 ahead. Trinity did battle back, but the damage was done as AerLingus held of the challenge and pressure of the experienced Cup side to win with an emphatic comeback result in a game that was absorbing by all accounts and very much thrilling to the large crowd in attendance. Trinity did not leave empty handed however as their Italian hitter Enrico Perla was awarded the MVP accolade.
It was 3rd against 5th from the women’s Premier-32 League as UCD, present in every Final since 2004, started out as early favourites against Santry who were last in the Final in 2003. Santry had a slight edge over their Belfield rivals for most of the first set, however were hauled back in the latter half thanks to cross-court kills from last year’s Final MVP Alena Dvorakova and line and cross-court kills from Noemi Kuncik.
And with that in mind, Santry were now giving as good as they getting, if not better as UCD were now starting to find it hard to return the same form and were under severe pressure themselves to defend their title. Santry raced into a commanding lead in the 3rd set and showing true form, equal to that of their opening day League win against UCD. Olive Rossiter was once again the main threat pulling the strings for the Santry girls while UCD’s heavily relied-on wing attacks were not only being finely-anticipated, but were also being smothered and defended well by a now fantastic Santry defence. Santry snatched the lead, 2-1 and once again were asking tough questions of their opposition.
And the defending champions were to have all but the kitchen sink thrown at them again in the 4th set as Santry didn’t relax, with strong serving and attacking forcing some way-ward passing in UCD’s defence and setter Joey Cardiff having to chase despairingly and helplessly to keep the ball in-court. Yet when UCD did attack, their options were now limited as Gemma Garvan and Jennifer Lawlor were defending for their lives and not giving an inch in the back court to their opposition. An emphatic win for Santry in the 4th and final set, 25-10, led to them being crowned the Association Cup Champions for 2008, with Jennifer Lawlor rewarded as the Final’s MVP for an incredible performance in defence.