East Midlands Volleyball League
Sunday 2nd February 2020 Leicester Athena 1 Derby Darkstar (11-25, 15-25, 25-12, 18-25) Athena's regional team failed to reach the standards of recent matches as they lost to a very talented Derby Darkstar team. Darkstar dominate with the serve Coach Paul started with more-or-less the same team that beat Hermitage: Eli setting, Julia as opposite, Sam and Amanda through the middle, Tereza and Edyta as outside hitters and Joy as libero. The early exchanges were very even with both teams passing and attacking well, Julia showing great presence of mind to hit smart balls into gaps in Darkstar's defence. But, at 4-6 down, Darkstar's Stryzowska came up to serve. Her low, strong serves caused huge problems for Athena. Despite two time-outs and Adela replacing Edyta, Athena only broke the serve with the score at 17-6. Such an onslaught ruined any confidence or flow in the team and Darkstar ran out the set easy 25-11 winners. Adela replaced Tereza for the second set but Athena failed to get into gear. Nervousness affected every contact, with the first pass to the setter still being wayward. When an attack opportunity was created, the hitters snatched at the ball, hitting the net 3 times in succession. Alessandra replaced Edyta and Tereza moved to the middle to replace Amanda, but Darkstar still won 25-15. Athena fights back After 2 exasperating sets, Athena finally began to play. Alessandra's extra height began to tell as she powered a number of excellent line kills. In backcourt, as well, Joy's passing improved and her positional sense meant that she was able to field a lot of Derby attacks, Alessandra added more calmness to the defence and Adela seemed to be everywhere covering the tips. Athena won the set 25-12 proving that they have the skills and firepower to compete. That positive energy carried onto the fourth set with Sam blocking well, Tereza making some crucial hits and Alessandra continuing to hit well. But a loss of concentration popped the bubble of confidence and Athena stuttered. With Athena starting to fall behind, a strong serving set from Eli brought the score back, but Athena could not get back to the levels in the third set and Derby closed the match out 25-18. Chances spurned Well done to Derby who thoroughly deserved their victory, but the third set showed that this was an opportunity lost. Congratulations to Adela for being nominated MVP and thank you to Charlie for refereeing excellently and to Saffron from the NVL team for scoring.
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