Women's Regional 1 Vs. Cleobury
Tuesday 27th October 2009
After a long break following a narrow loss in the Plate Cup final the first game of the new season finally arrived with an away game to Cleobury. The squad contained many of the players from the promoted team of last year along with 5 new players, part of the 20 plus players who have trained with the squad in the last four training sessions, a promising mixture of juniors and new students adding to the experienced squad. The match saw first caps for Gina, Christina, Pippa, Sara and Katja.
The first set saw UBVC make a steady start before organisation started to cause problems, leading to the loss of a string of points through rotation faults and confusion during rallies. Whilst frustrating to lose points in this way the players rallied and quickly adapted to produce some solid play, competing well and putting together good points. Consistent passing and defence from Ally Bayliss throughout as well as some clever attacks from Katja brought the set to a respectable 25-21 to Cleobury.
A poor start to the second set left Birmingham in a difficult position as another string of points were lost through strong serving from Cleobury and some poor reception and mix ups over the second ball. However Birmingham did manage to rally themselves producing some great rallies with Sandra’s powerful pipe attack piling through the Cleobury defence as well as a somewhat surprised Sara. When the pass was good Tracey brought in Sara and Ally through the middle and both were able to use the ball well to pick up points. However the bad start gave Cleobury a comfortable lead and some strong attacks and good passing meant they were never under too much pressure.
The third set saw a chance for all the new players to get on court and despite the large number of changes the team equipped itself well staying close to the Cleobury side with all players proving able to contribute to the pass and attack. Despite some dreadful line calls from the coach the team scrambled well to recycle a lot of ball and made sure the Cleobury side had to work until the end. The game saw many encouraging signs with all the new players proving able to quickly fit in and contribute against a well organised side with national league experience and talented younger players. With some further positional work resolving the disjointed nature to some of the points the team should quickly be able to pick up some results and the promising squad can look forward to a good season, especially with a rematch against Cleobury in the offing in a week and a half!
Match Facts
Competition: WMVA Knock-out Cup.
Played: Away.
Result: Lost 0-3.
Set Scores: 25-21, 25-16, 25-18.