Women's first slip up at home.
Saturday 22nd January 2011
After a thrilling encounter against Swiss Cottage won by Birmingham 3:2 in previous round hopes were high for another win against theoretically weaker opponent Tameside lying just one position below Birmingham in the Super 8 table. Birmingham started with Kowalska, Wojtczak, Dude, Beddows, Lesciauskaite and Edwards on court – pretty much an unchanged team from previous Saturday. Kirikal, Maixnerova and Preussner on the bench, Stefanska still out, libero: Klaudia Stiffelova. Tameside starting six Freinik, Brocklehurst, Van Essen, Hallam, Higginson, Hanrahan, libero Harris. On the bench: Drent.
The match started slowly for both sides, with few good services from both ends. Birmingham used their strong hitters Wojtczak and Beddows on both wings, scoring some good points. There was no clear advantage for either side with technical time outs at 8:7 and 16:14. Birmingham introduced #11 Tina Preussner early in the set at 9:11 and later #9 Michaela Maixnerova at 16:17. The second substitution proved crucial to outcome of the first set as Maixnerova helped to score 7 points on the trot for Birmingham with 2 aces and hard to cope with by Tameside’s receiving unit service. Tameside tried to disrupt good run taking 2 time-outs in quick succession but it proved worthless. After steady and rather slow start Birmingham won the set 25:21.
In the second set UBVC started as they finished and Tameside saw #16 Drent replacing for #7 Higginson. Tempo unfortunately did not improved with both teams scored 2-3 points at each serve rotation. There were some bright moments from Birmingham as blocking partnership of Beddows and Maixnerova work well scoring some points. Also we saw good form continued from Beddows taking her chance in absence of first choice opposite Kirikal who came back to training with the team only this week. Birmingham continued to put pressure on Tameside’s passing unit with strong and difficult serve gaining easy points to lead 11:4 forcing early time-out on the opposition. Tameside started scoring points through their outside #5 Hallam, but it was not enough as again a great run of serves, this time from captain Kowalska gave Birmingham comfortable lead 21:9 . At this point Tameside looked resigned and after few more exchanges of hits from both sides the set finished 25:15 and UBVC led 2:0.
Going into third set Birmingham were confident of winning and also introducing Kirikal to the game after some break. Tameside took to the court with renewed spirit and loudly cheering every point. Suddenly UBVC were put under pressure with great serving from #11 Van Essen that helped Tameside score 5 points on the trot. Birmingham fought back and went to first technical loosing 5:8 and shortly after scoring few more points reducing deficit to 1 point at 8:9. The game begun to be interesting – at last with long exchanges and great spirit from both sides. Tameside led 16:13 at the second technical time-out and Birmingham saw double change in their ranks – with #7 Beddows replacing Kirikal and #10 Lesciauskaite came on for #11 Preussner. This turned out to be the pivotal point of the set as Tameside’s #5 Hallam served 7 times scoring 3 aces to complete their win of the third set at 16:25.
In the fourth set Birmingham tried some changes in their set up, to improve passing and rule out mistakes. Tameside fired up wanted to win this set more than anything and take the game to 5 sets. This set was the most entertaining of all with great hits from Beddows and Wojtczak in the Birmingham side as well as Hallam and Higginson in Tameside. We saw some great defending from fully committed sides and the game stepped up a level. As it happens there good game has it bad moments as well. At 15:11, the first referee did not see what seemed to be an obvious carry fault from Tameside’s player which infuriated Birmingham’s coach and captain. Thankfully it did not influence spectacle and we saw volleyball at the best level. Birmingham had to chase the game from 16:11 down to 16:14 and later in the game 21:20 down. Throughout the set Tameside’s #5 Hallam continued with great serves, scoring vital points. At 21:22 UBVC introduced Maixnerova to help the team with good serve. It helped to take the lead for the first time 23:22. But Birmingham could not withstand good hitting from Tameside and eventually lost 24:26 after fantastic display from both teams.
It looked like the tie-break would be exciting and it was in fact. Birmingham after some words from their coach took to court with renewed belief and Tameside after 2 hard fought won sets had the momentum behind them. Surprisingly UBVC started much better with aces from Kowalska and good blocking, and took the lead 8:2 at change of sides. It looked like there is only one possible outcome to this set leaving Birmingham as winners. However, Tameside had other ideas and they fought back from 9:4 down to 13:11 down, putting pressure on to a relaxed Birmingham team. Suddenly it looked like the visitors would take all 3 points when score appeared 13:13 on the score board. After a few sideouts it was 15:15. Unfortunately for Birmingham the visitors defended every ball and forced errors on the home team that gave them a win of 15:17 in the set and 2:3 in whole match.
After what looked like good start and possible 3:0 win for home team, Birmingham looked too relaxed side and gave the game away to hard fighting Tameside team. Well done visitors, the Birmingham girls will have to improve their focus it seems.
Match Facts
Competition: National League Super 8s.
Played: Home.
Result: Lost 2-3.
Set Scores: 25-21, 25-15, 16-25, 24-26, 13-15.