Men's NVL Firsts Vs. Newcastle (Staffs) 2
Sunday 11th October 2009
After a long and close first match against Chester, Birmingham took on the young Newcastle Staffs team in the days second match.
Birmingham opened the match well and took a commanding lead over the Staffs team early on with some strong attacks from Tomczak and the two middles Kieron Bradley and Pete Nash. However the Birmingham team allowed the Newcastle youngsters to creep back into the set but eventually were able to win the set 25-20.
The second set did not start well for the Birmingham team and they allowed their opposition to gain some easy points against them. This passage of play was pivotal in the set as they were not able to keep ground with the younger and much fresher Staffs team who ran out 25-17 winners playing some nice volleyball with hits from all parts of the court.
With the score at 1-1 the Birmingham team knew that they could not let their opposition take the lead in the match and with fatigue obviously showing in the team, they knew they had to win in 4 sets. Birmingham took an early lead again thanks to some accurate setting from Butcher, powerful hitting from Nikolov and smart thinking from Hirt. Despite the young Staffs team fighting back, Birmingham were able to take the initiative in the set and eventually run out 25-18 winners to take a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was reminiscent of the sets in the match against Chester as it started very tight and continued in this vain throughout the set, mainly thanks to some strong blocking from all players. However despite the fatigue, Birmingham were able to keep the errors out of their game and at 22-22 Butcher and Nikolov confirmed the victory for Birmingham, winning the set 25-22.
A good all round performance from the team and one which looks promising for the rest of the season.
Match MVP: Tomasz Tomczak.
Match Facts
Competition: National League 3N.
Played: Away.
Result: Won 3-1.
Set Scores: 20-25, 25-17, 18-25, 22-25.