Story by REDintern Alethia Tiang. Pictures by Marvin Lowe and Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports. Video by Koh Yizhe, edited by Lai Jun Wei.

Eleanor Chua (Nanyang Girls, #1) spiking the ball. (Photo 1 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)

Yio Chu Kang Sports Hall, Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - Nanyang Girls' High defeated Ngee Ann Secondary 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-13) in today's finals of the National B Division Girls Volleyball Championship to emerge champions. But their victory was no easy feat as Ngee Ann Secondary put up a tough fight.

The game started off with Nanyang's Cheryl Chan (#2) serving the ball to Ngee Ann. A spike by Ngee Ann was saved by Nanyang, allowing Eleanor Chua (Nanyang Girls', #1) to score the first point of the girls' competition. However, a miscalculated serve out of court by Cheryl in the second game gave Ngee Ann the chance to score the next three points.

Nanyang soon gained an 11-6 lead as Ngee Ann struggled to save the balls served into their court. An impressive three-time save and successful point block by Ngee Ann's Lyvia Loh (#8) in one game gave her team the determination to fight on and levelled the set at 13-13.

A bullet serve by Ang Xue Er (Ngee Ann, #1) earned a point against Nanyang but a a spike from Lyvia went out of bounds to give Nanyang the first set 25-20.

Ngee Ann scored the first point in the second set when Carolyn Koh (#14) sent a spike that Nanyang's Ting Shan (#3) could not save. Nevertheless, Nanyang gained their first point when Eleanor spiked the ball past Lyvia.

Following on from that, she put up a magnificent block against Xue Er, preventing her from setting up the opportunity for her teammate to spike the ball again.

Ngee Ann then hauled themselves from 2-5 down to take a 9-5 lead. Cheryl Chan from Nanyang, who put up outstanding blocks against Ngee Ann, pulled her team up to a 10-9 lead.

The second set was proving an exciting one, with the lead constantly changing hands.

It was Nanyang who finally pulled away with the final three points from 22-22 to wrap up the second set 25-22. Spikes by Cheryl and Eleanor gave Nanyang two of those three points while Ngee Ann gave them the third with a foul.

Leading 2-0, Nanyang now needed to win one more set to be crowned the B Division volleyball champions for 2009.

Cheryl took the serve and sent the ball flying to Ngee Ann’s court. An attempted spike from Ngee Ann was saved by Nanyang, and Eleanor spiked successfully despite Lyvia’s attempt to retrieve for Ngee Ann.

Trailing 5-9 to Nanyang, a time out was called by Ngee Ann’s coach to reorganise the team. When play resumed, Ngee Ann tried to keep the score close but Eleanor and Cheryl of Nanyang put up a good defence against the Ngee Ann spikes.

Things got more exciting for both sets of supporters with nanyang leading 23-10.

A spike by Ngee Ann’s Phebe Poh (#2) slipped out of Nanyang’s hands, while the next spike by Fiona Toh (#17) could not be controlled by Nanyang. The third spike by Phebe once again slipped past the Nanyang players, bringing Ngee Ann up to 13-23 to cheers from Ngee Ann supporters.

However, a serve by Lyvia went out of bounds to give Nanyang set and match point. Ngee Ann’s Phebe then spiked the ball out of bounds to finally yield the third set and the championship title to Nanyang.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aubSUJS0AIM