Valletta San Antonio and Paola Hibs began the season in style last weekend after both retained the Super Cup titles.
In the men’s final, Valletta had the better of Attard Tenovar 3-1 and Paola Hibs beat Flyers Depiro by the same scoreline in the women’s contest.
Valletta were chasing their third Super Cup title against Attard. They reached their objective but it was not an easy match for them.
Despite being only in their second season, Attard underlined their intentions to challenge the Citizens for the main honours.
Attard pressed forward in the first set and won it 27-25 with two well-taken Omar Tanti spikes.
They raced into an 8-2 lead in the next set which they extended to 14-5 and 17-8, leading those present to believe they had a second point in the bag. But, a time-out and good service play from Robert Balzan brought Valletta back into the game.
With the score 17-18, Valletta never looked back to win the set 25-22.
The two teams played a balanced third set which saw Valletta hold on to a narrow three-point lead until the end to close the set 25-22.
Attard looked demoralised and failed to put up a strong fight as the holders went on to take the fourth set to win the Super Cup
Paola kept their hold on the women’s game after prevailing in a keenly-contested final.
In the first set, it was Flyers who went ahead only for Paola to hit back and lead narrowly to close the set 25-22.
In the second, Flyers preserved their early, albeit narrow, lead to win with an identical scoreline.
Hibs never allowed Flyers to find their rhythm in the third set. Showing consitent all-round play, the Paolites clinched a 25-6 win in just under 12 minutes.
The game was not over yet as far as Flyers were concerned. They moved into a 19-13 lead but when the game looked like going into a tie-break, Hibs summoned all their experience to level matters at 21-21 before going 23-21 in front.
It was now left to Flyers to make a last-gasp effort and they needed just one point to close the game at 24-23. Hibs, however, made it clear that they are still the team to beat and, after forcing a deuce, sealed the set 26-24.