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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