Women's NVL Firsts Vs. Malory Eagles
Saturday 28th November 2009
It was a good win for the University team, playing a Malory side also struggling for early wins and low in the NVL1 table. Malory are always a good team with experienced players who have been playing together for a long time. They have strong individuals who played for the England Seniors like Vanessa Lucas (ex C.o.W.) and Shauna Mullin (now professional beachvolleyball player).
Malory showed their usual good organisation on both sideout and transition: quick tempo sets on sideout and good block on transition. These two factors gave the London team the opportunity to take the lead in the first set with Birmingham often blocked on sideout attack. The score was 23:19 in favour of Malory but Birmingham did not quit. Anett Dude consistently served well and the whole team showed great defence and attack skills, scoring six points in a row and winning the set.
In the second set Birmingham collapsed because of too many errors on both reception and attack, allowing Malory to win the set easily. The third set was very balanced with Birmingham taking the lead up to 12:9 thanks to an aggressive service and better block-defence attitude. However Birmingham made a series of errors on reception that changed the score, obliging the students to chase again the hosting team. Birmingham slowly became more effective on sideout with a more balanced setting distribution and definitively effective attacks. This allowed the University to achieve the set victory.
The fourth set showed again a great balance between the two teams, who were chasing each other. Birmingham was able to score an impressive number of blocks for a total of 6 points!! Together with effective attacks the University team could eventually win set and the match.
The Birmingham coach said,
“When you play experienced and organised teams like Malory you must play at your top. All the players on court must perform very well otherwise you have no chance to beat those kinds of teams. You should show the same skills quality, tactics discipline and game organisation. It was a great satisfaction for all of us because it was a true team win, and it doesn’t want to be a common statement”.
Match Facts
Competition: National League Division 1.
Played: Away.
Result: Won 3-1.
Set Scores: 23-25, 25-13, 23-25, 21-25.