Men’s Matches

• Game 1: 1 - 3 ADL Storm
• Game 2: 0-3 ADL Storm

The top of the table Storm came to their final away round on their three-week travel stint with captain Nathan Roberts away.

After a tough 2 loss round in their first games last week, the Phoenix were hoping to bounce back with aggressive serving and attack against the more experienced South Australian team.

The first game started with a few hitting errors from both teams before the Storm found their groove and pulled away with the help of some strong serving by Ryan Scutter at the end of the set.

Set 2 and both teams fought hard with the score staying close to 16-all. Jordan Colotti stepped back to the service line and kept the Phoenix team out of system to break away and take the second set.

In the third set the Phoenix showed their fighting spirit and took an early lead never looking back to grab their first set of the weekend 15-16, but the experience of the Storm came through in the 4th set and too many errors in attack crept in for the phoenix giving the 3-1 win to Adelaide.

Match 2 looked like it was going to follow the same patter as match 1 with the Phoenix bringing a couple of early hitting errors to give adelaide a 5 point lead, before some great attack by Reilly Keogh and Tim Taylor brought the team back to 25-all. Both teams holding their nerve on a number of occasions to prevent each other from taking the set until finally Regan Fathers put the ball away to finish it at 37-35.

The Phoenix bench created some great atmosphere to bring the crowd on board, and moments of quiet created tension for the Adelaide serve, but calm under pressure the Storm were a little to efficient for the young Phoenix team and left Sydney with 2 wins.

"Every week the boys are getting better and learning what is required to compete at this level. Some great hustle this weekend kept the ball off the ground a lot more than last week, we just need to improve our attack efficiency to make the most of the opportunities we are creating." - PHX head coach Chris Todd

Women’s Matches

• Game 1: 3-2 NSW Phoenix
• Game 2: 1-3 ADL Storm

Round 3 saw NSW Phoenix take on an experienced team in the Adelaide Storm. The second and third set were filled with a dominant attacking display from the Storm, and left the Phoenix down 2-1 heading into the 4th. As the name suggests, Phoenix rose in the 4th set with a returned energy to take us into a 5th and final set showdown. In what was in an intense and difficult first match, NSW Phoenix triumphed to take the game 3-2.

Game 2 saw moments of brilliance from both teams. Storm were strong in their service and NSW were struggling to receive. Storm came away with a 3-1 win on Sunday to close out the weekend. However, as Head Coach Max Gubbiotti described to his players before the match "This is not about winning and losing, on this journey we are focused on winning and learning". In the heat of the match Storm were able to compose themselves to take critical points. Even so, our Phoenix never gave up and can take some incredible confidence heading into our Round 4 matches against WA Steel.