Birmingham Girls Lose to Old Enemy
Wednesday 27th October 2010
This second match of the women’s BUCS team against Loughborough on 27th October 2010 ended with a defeat for our team.
The first set started fairly evenly, with some good serves that made it difficult for the opponent to build up a proper attack. However, it took the team too long to focus on scoring rather than on defending, and it lost the first set 25-21.
In the second set, Coach Bertrand Olie replaced opposite hitter Carlotta Giacche who had been taking last week’s opposite hitter Nadine Meyer’s place (she had unfortunately fallen ill the day before) and put in Judith Hinterberger. Set 2 provided some exciting moments, with outside hitter Alessandra D’Andrea scoring a number of points in a row. However, initial motivation and concentration began to fade when Loughborough started scoring with a number of hits in the backcourt. Birmingham missed chances to win back points and Loughborough won the second set 25-23.
Struggling with both, defending the highly motivated opponent’s hard hits and its own mental distraught, Birmingham was not able to recover from the earlier defeats. Although middle hitters Martina Lechthaler and Kate Holt succeeded at times to win a couple of points by hitting the ball in the middle of the opponent’s court, Birmingham was beaten 25-16 in set 3, losing the match 0:3.
Although Birmingham was technically and physically easily matching the Loughborough team, this second defeat revealed a great deal of insecurity within the newly assembled team. Certainly the girls will soon find a way to overcome their confusion in the defence and fulfil their great potential in the offence.
Match Facts
Competition: Men's Division 1.
Played: Away.
Result: Lost 0-3.
Set Scores: 25-21, 25-23, 25-16.