Men's NVL Firsts Vs. Boathouse Dewsbury
Sunday 25th February 2007
UoB made the long journey up the motorway with a virtually full strength squad. The only players missing were Varinder and Pawel; with Varinder likely to miss the remainder of the season through injury. Coach Graham Fowler had a lot of options open to him for the first match, and with Boathouse being a fairly strong side, it was good to have a choice of attack. The starting six of Pete (setter), Grant (outside), Bertrand (middle), Ronald (outside), Fred (middle), and Thegan (opposite) went out on court strong.
UoB took a small lead at the beginning through some excellent volleyball and with points flying back and forth, Boathouse never caught up and UoB won 25-20. The second set seems to be the bogey set for UoB this season, with UoB losing or playing badly in quite a few of them. It was to be no different this time round. UoB started the set badly with some terrible unforced errors and the passing just not being accurate enough. UoB need a 3-0 victory to keep up the fight for promotion. At 9-3 down, Sascha replaced Ronald as an outside hitter. Points were still going either way and no break through was coming. However UoB stuck to their guns and battled through it; with 9 straight points coming from the serves of Fred and Grant, UoB were brought back into it. With UoB taking a small lead, we started to improve our game. At 19-17, UoB lost three points through the hard serving of Boathouse's powerful Polish hitter. When we won the fourth point, the game was tied at 20-20. From here, points were going back and forth, point for point. At 24-24, UoB moved onto 25 through the boathouse player being timed out from serving. Something that isn't seen too often, and obviously did not go down too well with Boathouse. With UoB's heads high, a great block from Thegan won the second set. Tempers flared from the Boathouse side, with one player sharply getting himself booked for arguing with the referee.
UoB started the third set the same way they finished the second and were highly motivated after winning the second whilst Boathouse were clearly disgruntled. Brilliant setting from Pete allowed for some powerful hitting from Grant and Sascha and some excellent quick spikes from our two middle players, Fred and Bertrand - which caused the UoB bench to stand up and sing the French National anthem each time. UoB continued to take the game to Boathouse and eventually ran out 3-0 winners with a comfortable 25-14 set win. A tough match, but deservedly won.
Match Facts
Competition: EVA National League Division IIIN.
Played: Away.
Result: Won 3-0.
Set Scores: 20-25, 24-26, 14-25.