East Midlands Volleyball League
Sunday 1st December 2019 Leicester Athena 3 Nottingham Rockets 0 Athena's regional team were in brutal form as they brushed aside a young Nottingham Rockets team in three sets. Athena started with a strong line-up despite the late withdrawals of Adela and Amanda. Eli was setting, Julia played as opposite, Tereza and Sam played as middle hitter, Edyta and Alessandra played as outside hitters and Karina made her debut as libero. Eli's serving allowed Athena to build an early lead in the first set. There were a number of very long rallies with both sets of players recycling the ball well and creating opportunities but Athena managed to edge out these early exchanges and this fuelled a confidence within the side. Karina's passing grew as the set progressed and Sam was hitting some beautiful attacks through the middle. Rockets came back midway through the set but Athena held out 25-16. Athena started the second set a bit slowly and were 6-2 and 9-3 down before strong serving from Eli and Edyta pulled the set level. Karina's passes were starting to find their mark, landing just where Eli wanted them and this allowed Eli to set up Tereza, Alessandra and Edyta for big hits. Once more Athena won the set 26-16. Joy replaced Karina as libero for the third set and Edyta broke Rockets' resistance with a fine display of hard, low, accurate serving. By the time she served a jump serve into the net, Athena were 15-1 up. Athena sealed the match with a 25-6 win. Although this is a young Rocket's side, Athena showed a ruthlessness and swagger about their play. Edyta deservedly won the MVP nomination for her unplayable serves but also for her strong passing and accurate hitting. Sam and Tereza are returning to fitness after their ankle injuries and played well, Julia was full of sparkle and intelligence and Eli set beautifully. Alessandra played really well despite a reoccurrence of an elbow injury in the warm-up which put her participation in doubt.
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Athena juniors hosted a mini-tournament against a group from Derby Darkstar.
Athena has 12 juniors present and Darkstar brought 7 (4 girls and 3 boys). Athena were split into 3 teams and Darkstar nto 2 and they took part in 4v4 matches to 10 points. In the first match-up, Barbora, Evie, Nikki and Emily played against Darkstar girls. Barbora showed off ehr fantastic serving to create a 3-0 lead and excellent receiving from Nikki, brilliant setting from Evie and good hits from Emily saw them go on to win 10-6. Kiara's team beat the team of Darkstar boys 9-10. Kiara made some fantastic progress going for the ball and Katie was enjoying herself too. The new player Mariah had some excellent plays of the ball, and it showed that she has played quite a lot before. In the second set of matches, Barbora’s team showed fantastic 3 touch volleyball causing the supporters to cheer loudly! Again, Evie’s setting and Barbora’s serving and Emily’s receiving all showed good technique. Eyrn's team showed real togetherness, and Alexis was paramount to bringing her teammates together. She showed impressive team spirit, and brilliant passing at times. Eryn had wonderful ball control and fabulous setting skills. Oliwia is making fantastic progress and I’m sure she has grown since the last time she came to training! When relaxed, her pass is good and she is making great strides in developing her technique. After the 4v4 matches, we finished the night off playing 6v6 to give the juniors an experience of playing on a full-sized court. Overall, the spirit and energy was fantastic. The adults could feel the energy and fun in the air and it was so good to see everyone beginning to gel together and become a squad in their own right. With that and with the technical improvements, we are starting to see our junior squad really develop and we are certainly excited to see how much more they can develop together as a team and as individuals. A huge thank you to Helen from Darkstar for suggesting the session and for bringing her squad down. Well played to everyone and thank you to Anna, Sarah and Joy for coming to watch. Thank you to Charlie for the match report. East Midlands Volleyball League Sunday 24th November 2019 Leicester Athena 3 Ashfield Vipers 1 Athena's Regional league team produced their best performance of the season to see off a spirited Ashfield Vipers team. Athena started with Eli setting, Adela playing as opposite, Sam and Amanda through the middle, Edyta and Julia as outside hitters and Joy as libero. Both sides started off tentatively with serve and pass errors but Vipers began to eke out a lead as Athena's serve receive took time to gel. Evenso, Vipers could not get away and Athena kept plugging away with some excellent scrambling but, try as they might, they could not overhaul Vipers and Vipers won the first set 25-20. Coach Paul switched Julia and Adela for the second set and that immediately produced results with the team looking much more balanced. They played outstanding volleyball, with a solid first pass allowing Eli to set up Sam, Adela and Edyta for winners. In defence, Sam, Amanda and Eli made crucial blocks. Adela shone when serving as well, serving 9 winners in a row to break Viper's resistance. Athena won the second set 25-10.
Athena were unchanged for the third set and Vipers came back hard, with excellent back court hits and scrambling. Athena didn't play as well but they worked hard and chased down lost causes and scrapped their way to win the set 27-25. It was a measure of their progress that they stayed focussed when set point down to clinch the third set and take a lead. The same side started the fourth and Athena established a slim early lead and worked hard to keep Vipers at bay. Adela and Joy were covering everything in back court, Julia was tipping and placing the ball in gaps in the Vipers defence, Edyta was hitting very well and Amanda was hitting winners through the middle. Tereza replaced Sam halfway through the set with instructions to close the set out. Athena clinched the fourth set 25-19 to win 3-1. It was an outstanding performance, full of technique, energy, focus and demonstrated the quality within the regional league squad. Eli was nominated MVP by Vipers, reward for her hard low serves, her excellent setting, her covering and her tips and blocks. A complete performance. However, every single player excelled and contributed to a memorable win against a very good Vipers team. Thank you to Petra for refereeing, Alex for scoring and Ioana for cheering so wildly from the bench. Leicestershire League
Friday 22nd November 2019 PVC 3 Leicester Athena 0 (25-12, 25-13, 25-9) Athena's local league team showed definite signs of progress in their second loss to PVC in 3 weeks ago. This time, Athena had an even less experienced team and they showed glimpses of excellent volleyball. They started the first set with Charlie and Ioana as setters, Anna and Sab as middle hitters and Eve and Maria as outside hitters. They started much quieter than the first match and they played with a degree of nervousness. Arms jabbed at the ball, hitters snatched at opportunities and PVC managed to established a strong lead through accurate serving. At 22-11 down, Coach Paul put 15 year old Barbora on for her first ever adult match as she replaced Anna. Despite her obvious nervousness, she still made a couple of good passes. Athena reverted to their starting six for the second set and started much better. They passed better, chased and were able to win the scrappy points. Midway through the match, Athena were still in the set, but then the nervousness crept back in and they struggled to cope with a series of serves from Jacob. Evie replaced Eve to make her debut at 16 years old. For the third set, Eve had to look after her baby meaning that Evie started the set - a big responsibility for such a young player. Despite that, she threw herself into the match admittedly, helped by her elder players coaxing her through the rotations. Barbora then replaced a fading Sab and we finished the match with 2 juniors on court. Despite the loss, Coach Paul was delighted with some of the play, especially the penultimate point where Anna went on an arc route through to smash a winner through the middle. Very high quality volleyball. A big well done to Ioana who played despite feeling pretty rubbish because of a cold. Well done to Anna who is starting to show the quality she demonstrates in training on match days. There was a lot of stuff to work on, but most importantly, there are signs of a very good team coming together. East Midlands Volleyball League
Friday 15th November 2019 Loughborough Students 1 Leicester Athena 3 Athena's regional league team were made to work hard by Loughborough Students but managed to record their second successive away win of the season. Athena started with Ioana setting, Adela as opposite, Joy as libero, Tereza and Amanda as middle and Julia and Edyta as outside hitters. They started strongly too. Taking advantage of the Student's slow and uncertain start, they quickly pushed into a strong lead through a combination of solid serving and great middle hitting from Tereza. Athena won the first set 25-16. Loughborough began the second set much the stronger, serving well and defending resolutely. Loughborough's serving, in particular, put Athena under pressure and their pass become very erratic. With Ioana being starved of good ball, Athena could not create any attacks and they lost the set 25-16. Sarah replaced the visibly tiring Ioana as setter for the third set and it was a very close fought set. Both teams were playing their best volleyball with many long, hard rallies. Loughborough led, then were pegged back by Athena. Athena crept into a 22-17 lead, but Loughborough roared back to 24-24 but, eventually, Athena toughed out a crucial 28-26 set win. That changed the balance of power and Athena strode away in the final set. Loughborough looked lost and could not contain the serving and hitting from Edyta. Athena sealed the win 25-14. Well done to Edyta for being nominated MVP and special mention to Tereza for playing through the pain of a sprained ankle. National Shield - Round 1
Sunday 10th November Tamworth Spartans 1 Leicester Athena 3 (21-25, 18-25, 25-14, 9-25) Coming off the back of a morning training session, Leicester Athena travelled to Tamworth to meet Tamworth Spartans – a team that they played against in Division 3 last season. Going to the game with nearly a full squad, apart from 2 of our opposite players and 1 of our middles, was the most amount of players who had attended a game so far this season! Athena's slow start strike again The first set started with: Sarah setting, Saffron opposite, Kristy and Amy as outside players, Alexandra and Karolina in the middle, and both Algi and Michelle as liberos – the first time we have ever played with 2 liberos in the same game! Prior to the match, Coach Gordon advised us not to let Tamworth get several points ahead at the beginning of the first set which has always seemed to be the “Athena Curse”. So what did we do? We, of course, let them get 5 points ahead… However, we then started to get into the set properly and just after the first technical timeout, Karolina came round to serve and scored a whopping 8 points to take us to the next technical timeout! That spurred us on even further and with some great first passes from the passing unit, we were able to steam ahead to a 25-21 win. Back coverage ensures the second set The 2nd set started the same as the first. We tried to not do the same mistake twice, but Tamworth’s #9 (and match MVP) served some very tough serves which got themselves to a 5-0 lead. When the first technical timeout came around, we were 8-4 down. However, we managed to turn it around once again and with some kill shots coming from all hitting options, and some great back court covering from both Algi and Michelle, a Tamworth timeout was called at 12-14 and 18-23 but this didn’t stop us and we finished the last 2 points and won 25-18. Tamworth work their way back into the tie In the 3rd set, Coach Gordon made a few changes to the starting line-up. Paulina came on as setter, and Petra came on for Kristy as an outside hitter. This meant that newcomer to the team, Amy, was given the role of being on court captain. This time, we didn’t let them start with a large lead and were neck and neck with them when it came to the first technical timeout. However, some lack of communication from our side, and good play from Tamworth, meant the opposition strode ahead to a 16-8 lead. This lead was hard to shake and shook the confidence of our team and despite fighting back, Tamworth worked their way to a 25-14 victory. Athena clinch victory Coach Gordon changed the starting rotation once again and put it back to the starting rotation from the 1st and 2nd set, meaning Sarah and Kristy were once again on court. Fuelled by motivation after losing the last set, Kristy led us to a 14-3 lead! The team were once again back to their winning ways, and were able to deplete the confidence of the Tamworth team. This didn’t stop us as we wanted to finish the set strong, so with some great pickups from the passing unit and cracking line hits from both Saffron and Amy, this meant that the team strode towards a win. Captain Sarah finished the set by serving the last 5 points and Athena were guaranteed to go through to the next round of the National Shield competition by winning the set 25-9. Athena NVL now face Birmingham Volleyball Club on the 1st December in the next round of the Shield. This now guarantees that they have a game every weekend from now until the season finishes for Christmas. It will be a busy time, so stay tuned to see what’s next! East Midlands Volleyball League
Saturday 9th November 2019 Nottingham Rockets 0 Leicester Athena 3 Athena's regional league got the weekend off to a great start with a comprehensive 3-0 over an inexperienced Nottingham Rockets side. Athena started the match with Eli setting, Ioana opposite, Julia and Edyta as outside hitters and Tereza (playing despite a nasty looking ankle injury sustained last weekend) and Amanda as middle players. Joy was the libero. From the start, Athena's serving was hard and accurate and caused Rockets a lot of problems. Eli, Edyta and Amanda all served well to help Athena build up a strong lead and, although Rockets rallied late on in the set, Athena eased the first set 25-15. The second set followed the same pattern as Edyta and Tereza began to find their range and kept the momentum in Athena's direction with powerful and accurate hitting. Athena wobbled a tiny bit in the middle of the set but closed it out 25-18. For the final set, Sam replaced Tereza and slotted straight in, winning a number of points through the middle. Adela came on for Ioana to get her first court minutes of the season for the regional team. Athena showed great concentration to win the third set 25-14. It was a very good performance from Athena, Every player played their part and the togetherness and teamwork was really heartening. And well done to Tereza who, despite her injured ankle, won MVP. Leicestershire League
Wednesday 30th October 2019 Leicester Athena 0 PVC 3 (10-25, 10-25, 5-25) Although the scoreline may make it seem that Athena were heavily beaten, the truth was that this was a lot closer match than the score shows. Athena had an extremely inexperienced team with Racheal and Freya playing their first ever matches and with Sabina, Anna, Nikki, Maria and Eve having only played a few matches before. They were supported by Charlie, Ioana and Amanda. PVC had to call on Athena regional league players Eli and Tereza to make their six and, even with Jacob in their ranks, they were a team boasting many years of experience. Despite their inexperience, Athena played a lot of neat volleyball, exhibiting clean technique that delighted their coach, Paul. What stopped them getting closer to PVC was their inability to create strong attacks and their inability to cope with Christine's serves. But it was a display full of great promise. National Cup - Round 2
Sunday 6 October Coventry and Warwick Riga 3 Leicester Athena 1 (26-24, 25-13, 22-25, 25-22) The NVL team faced Round 2 of the Volleyball England’s National Cup on Sunday against another Division 2 team. This was the second time that they have faced another Division 2 team since stepping up into this division after winning Division 3 last season. Arriving at Coventry & Warwick Riga’s venue off the back of a morning training session, we were hopeful that we had prepared enough to be able to face this new challenge. First set to C&W Riga The first set started with: Paulina setting, Alysia opposite, Alexandra and Karolina through middle, Petra and Kristy through the outside, and Algi as libero. The set started well, as Athena were able to keep it close to C&W Riga throughout the set. It was obvious that C&W Riga belonged in the higher division compared to the teams we faced last year, however it was also clear that we too, belonged. A strong left hander outside and opposite player from C&W Riga meant that we had to adjust our blocking system slightly to compensate for this, however it was done well by all players. After exchanging a lot of points and a fight at the end, C&W Riga just pulled ahead to win 26-24. The 2nd set started with the same line-up, but our confidence dipped at the beginning of the set and it was difficult to bring it back after this. The lack of communication was a huge problem on court, particularly in the service receive, which has never seemed to be a major problem in previous games. Alysia was replaced by Saffron through opposite, but despite this change, C&W Riga won the set 25-13. Athena fight back in the third In the 3rd set, Paulina was replaced by captain Sarah as setter, but the rest stayed the same. The 3rd set went better than the last, mostly due to the fact that we knew we could play better than we had done in the 2nd set. We came back with a bit more ferocity, and started to make attacking headway through the blocks of the C&W Riga players, whilst ourselves were getting touches to the block more regularly which helped the receivers in the back court. With a great rally of serving by Kristy, who scored 8 points in service alone – the joint highest of the game, we started to push ahead point by point. We finished the set by winning 25-22. In the final set, the line-up stayed the same as the 3rd set. We started off well but at the first technical timeout, we were behind 4-8 and with some words of encouragement from the bench, we went back on court with a positive frame of mind. At the second technical timeout, they had clawed it back to be behind 15-16. Now it was just a race to get to the end of the set. From the technical timeout until it was 22-22, both teams had only scored 1 point each until the service changed hands. However, at the 22-22 mark, we were on service receive and the pressure and lack of communication got too much as we lost 25-22. Lots of lessons learned We lost the game 3-1, but we have certainly learned a lot from the game. We were without our “great and masterful coach” – Gordon, who was enjoying the weekend back in Scotland. Whether or not that made a difference or not we won’t know, but the players on Sunday have certainly learned a lot and will take this learning forward to the rest of the season. Next week (13th October), we play away to Manchester Marvels in their first Division 2 league game of the season. We are the newbies to this league, but now is the time to prove to everyone else of course, but especially to ourselves, that we belong in this division. Thanks to Sarah for the match report |
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