Aztecs Volleyball Club

Aztecs have lost the services of one of their most consistent performers, with Tomasz Piotrowski returning to his native Poland.

Tomasz played his final match for Aztecs Old Boys against UUJ on 3rd April. Fittingly, it was yet another 5 set match, with Aztecs claiming the points against UUJ to complete the treble over the students.

Despite missing the mercurial talent of Andrew Gilpin hitting outside, the Old Boys performed well against a fast improving UUJ side that contained several former Aztecs players. Stefan Durand moved to universal to allow Glyn Owen to take on the passing duties alongside Chris Irwin. Alan Templeton continued as setter, while David Irwin and Tomasz Piotrowski featured in their regular middle blocker roles.

Aztecs 2s travelled to Lisburn for their division 2 match just hours after Armagh College retained their schools' league title with a win against Portadown College. There were no signs of bad feeling between the players, with afternoon rivalry put aside for the evenings match.

Aztecs started well, with captain Chris Irwin settling his team quickly on court. Good setting from Andrew Martin gave Dorian McCullough, John Robb and Stuart Kernoghan good ammunition for their hitting. Aztecs moved into a comfortable lead, but a dip in concentration in the middle of the set allowed Civil Service to come back into the game. Determined defending by Nicky Kerr and some outstanding blocking by Robb fought off the CS comeback and Aztecs took the set 25-23.

Aztecs women travelled to UUJ this evening (28th Jan) egar to play them for the first time after the mix-up at their home game.

The match started out with both teams serving hard and attacking well. The Aztecs were the clear underdogs in the match up, but did well to stay in the first half of the set with good setting from lynz magic hands mccavery and good hitting from diane russell and eve cadeau, however serving errors gave UUJ the advantage and eventually the set.

The second set began similar to the first with UUJ making alot of unforced errors allowing Aztecs to stay in the game with good blocking from lauren bell and gayle carson.  Good hitting from vicky brennan and kim whitten gave the aztecs a chance to take the lead in the middle of the set however passing errors from aztecs gave control back to UUJ who took the set.

Aztecs were out to avenge a 5th set defeat to Ballymoney in their first meeting of the season, but were weakened by the withdrawal of talisman Paul McIlwaine from the squad. Aztecs were boosted before the match by the registration of Old Boy Keith Percy, a former NI volleyball international and more recently Irish League football player.

Aztecs started slowly in the first set, again struggling to fit different players into the team setup. Specialist middle player Thomasz Piotrowski was forced to play as outside hitter in the absence of regular passer Andrew Gilpin, reducing the Aztecs attacking options. Ballymoney made quick work of the set, winning at a canter 25-18.

Another 5 set match for the Old Boys ended in a 16-14 defeat in the final set.

It was no surprise when Aztecs 1 started the first set stronger. The Old Boys are gaining a reputation for being slow starters this season, despite winning the first set 4 times in their 9 games so far. Much superior hitting from Stuart Hamilton and Stephen Wilson gave the 1sts the edge in the first set, with the Old Boys unable to find their rythm and their attack misfiring. The first team ran out easy 25-14 winners.

Dogged defence from the Aztecs in the second set put the 1sts under pressure. Over confidence led them to make several basic errors and the Old Boys capitalised. Aggresive hitting from Paul McIlwaine and Thomas Piotrowski put the 1st team on the back foot and quality support play by David Irwin, Stephan Durand and Glyn Owen kept the pressure on the young players. Good setting from Graham Bell for the 1sts gave his team a fighting chance, but the Old Boys called on their vast experience to take the set 25-23.

Aztecs Old Boys suffered their first defeat of the season and indeed their first since being formed at the beginning of last season.

The team travel to Lisburn Leisure Centre to play Civil Service on Thursday night and began the game with a completely new starting six from the previous week. The disrupton caused by these changes was obvious early on as Civil Service raced into an 11-1 lead. Aztecs took a long time to settle, gifting their opponents too many points and eventually losing the set 25-16.

Unfortunatley due to the makeshift nature of the team, Aztecs were unable to find any consistent form in the final two sets and again gave away too many points through unforced errors. Aztecs lost the second and third sets 25-9 and 25-15 respectively.

Despite a much improved performance, Aztecs 2nds went down to their second 3-0 defeat to Ballymoney in a week.

Full report to follow. 

An amazing game last night between Aztecs Old Boys and North Down left players and spectators breathless after a marathon 2nd set forced the scorers to reset the scoreboard when they ran out of numbers!

Aztecs were starting their league campaign in the first division after their promotion as 2nd division champions. North Down were a tough team to draw as an opening game, narrowly missing out on retaining their league title last season. North Down were without several of their key players from their championship winning season, but still boasted 5 of the players from that squad in their starting lineup, alongside some excellent young players from the NI development squad.

Aztecs defeated Ballymoney in a hard fought match on Monday night. Full report to follow.