This past weekend, the TIS Senior Boys volleyball team participated in the annual ACAMIS Gold Division volleyball tournament hosted by Hong Kong Academy, located in Sai Kung. The ACAMIS tournament is basically the championship finale pitting TIS against 5 other international schools which include The British School of Beijing (BSB), Hangzhou International School (HIS), International School of Nanshan Shenzhen (ISNS), Dalian American International School (DAIS), and host Hong Kong Academy (HKA).
The round robin went as planned, as TIS finished as the top seed with an undefeated record of 5 wins and 0 losses. This round consisted of some pretty close matches, but none were closer than the match against BSB. Defense was the focus of the BSB team and their defensive system was so tight, it caused a lot of problems for the opposing teams. It didn’t help that many of their starters were phenomenal soccer players that were able to dig many near impossible tips with their feet! We managed to cope with their unorthodox style and took the victory in 3 very close sets!
Finishing as the top seed allowed TIS to face 4th place ISNS in the semi-finals. The Tigers played ISNS in the first match on Thursday and won in 2 straight sets, but at this point in the tournament, every team had improved and refined their skills so much, that any 1 of the top 4 teams could have won the entire thing! The boys managed to beat ISNS in 2 straight sets and set up a rematch with BSB in the Gold medal final.
As it should, the final involved the 2 best teams in the tournament. Both teams were at the tops of their game and were facing each other for the final time this season. After some thrilling rallies, BSB ended up taking the first set by a couple of points. The Tigers did not dwell on the loss and came roaring out in 2nd set to take the win quite handily. The 3rd and final set was everything a volleyball fan could have asked for. The teams provided some exciting rallies, powerful spiking and effective serving. At the the switch, TIS had an 8-7 lead, but they could n’t maintain the lead heading to the end of the set. With the score 14-13 in favor of BSB, the boys left everything out on the court with one of the best rallies of the tournament. Unfortunately, BSB won the set and the ACAMIS championship. After the team’s strong showing, two Tigers were selected to the ACAMIS All Tournament Team. Both Samson Lai and Marco Chak joined the tournament’s elite.
After winning Gold last year, the Tigers had high expectations this year to repeat as champions. Although they did not repeat, the entire team should be very proud of themselves for all their hard work throughout this season. This years tournament was no cake walk and they really had to persevere and dig deep to win silver. As coach for the past 3 years, I’ve had the privilege of watching these young men develop over the years, having known some of them for 5-6 years.
A huge kudos goes out to the four grade 10s on the club (Nathan Lee, Kenneth Lo, Sunny Lei and Oscar Wong) who stepped in and had to fill some big shoes this year. I’d also like to commend them on their dedication and willingness to learn new skills and a brand new system in such a short time. The future looks bright.
I’d also like to bid farewell to my 6 senior players that will be graduating this year. Marco Chak, Samson Lai, Jason Ieong, Kosta Leonardos, Kawai Lo and Jack Huang have been huge parts of this team and are a big reasons why the team has been so successful over the past few years. Not only are they students and athletes, I am also proud to call them my friends.