Kathryn Chen was a member of the Victorian under-23 volleyball team that won a national championship on Saturday. 83911 Picture: JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
LUCKILY for Kathryn Chen, her shoulder held together long enough to let her celebrate victory in a national junior volleyball tournament last week.
Chen, 21, from Endeavour Hills, heads in for surgery on her right shoulder today, after dislocating it just before the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships at the State Volleyball Centre in Dandenong.
“I dislocated my shoulder two weeks before the tournament,” Chen said. “It was strapped pretty heavily and I lived off painkillers for the tournament.
“I head in for shoulder surgery on Thursday and I’ve got nine to 12 months of recovery ahead of me.”
Chen’s Victorian under-23 women’s team came back from six points down in the second set to whitewash Queensland in three sets, 25-16, 27-25, 25-14 and knock off their old arch-enemies who had defeated Victoria in the final the last three years.
Defeating the old enemy was sweet satisfaction for Chen, especially with Victoria winning the President’s Cup back from Queensland after it being in the possession of the Maroons for the last six years.
“It was absolute joy and a little bit of relief to win,” Chen said.
“Ecstatic and over the moon – we worked really hard for it, so it felt really good.
“It was very nice to beat Queensland as they are our rival. They are our biggest enemy and we played them in the final for the last three years and lost, so it’s good to finally win.”
To cap off a successful tournament for Chen, she and three teammates – Hannah Martin, Lena Skipper and Monique Stojanovic – were named in the All-Star seven for their age group after Victoria only dropped one set for the entire competition.
Chen has also represented Australia since 2009, having started in the Australian junior program in 2007.
