South West Pirates' division three women win gold at Volleyball Victoria Country Championships

The Warrnambool-based team was crowned champions, defeating Sunraysia 3-0 in the gold medal match on Monday morning on what was a memorable weekend for the association in Mildura.

Proud skipper Jemma Gibbs said it was a much-deserved result for her hard-working and exciting team which excelled on the big stage.

"I'm pretty exhausted but in the end I'm so happy with the final result," she said.

"We're so happy to get through and get the gold medal in the end.

"It does feel really good for me. We worked really hard as a team and individually before and during the games."

The 17-year-old said the team believed it had what it took to win the gold medal match after winning three of its six games across the course of the tournament.

"One thing that went really well was having each other's backs all tournament," she said.

"We had a lot of trust and connection in each other which helped the team get the result.

"We pushed through and got the job done."

Alongside the division three women, the division one women and division two men teams clinched silver medals after narrowly falling short in their respective gold medal matches to cap off a successful tournament.

The Pirates' junior boys team lost their bronze medal match 3-1 to Sunraysia but showed plenty of promising signs.

South West Pirates president Tanya Hughes said the division one women's silver medal was a significant result for the association with the team, led by Cheree McKean, "improving out of sight".

"They've come together nicely as a team and have a great mix of younger, state and experienced players," she said.

"They're improving out of sight. There's so many coming through the ranks, so the future is exciting for that team."

Hughes said it was a wonderful result for the association, which could come back home with plenty to be proud of.

"It was an amazing result for everyone involved and it's been a huge weekend of volleyball," she said of the country championships.

"Some of the games were finishing at midnight, so they were some really long days.

"But our teams rallied when they needed to which is great.

"To win three senior medals and almost a fourth is a wonderful effort.

"All the teams that went away represented Warrnambool so well, we're so proud to come away with three medals and the juniors did extremely well too in their bronze match."

The association was also presented with the chairman's trophy for best club performance across the tournament.

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