East Midlands Volleyball League
Sunday 13th January 2020 Lincoln Cannons 1 Leicester Athena 3 (25-21, 22-25, 16-25, 12-25) Athena's regional league team made up for a slow start by beating Lincoln Cannons 3-1. Athena started with Eli setting, Julia opposite, Sam and Amanda as middle hitters, Tereza debuting as outside with Edyta and Joy as libero. Their last match or training session was mid-December and the rustiness showed with poor communication, wayward passes and a lack of movement in the backcourt. Athena's slow start Lincoln were very strong in defence and they worked hard to recover balls. Their tactic seemed to be to get the ball over the net and wait for Athena to make mistakes and Athena duly obliged. Poor serves, failing to deal with soft Lincoln serves and poor positioning meant that Lincoln won the first set 25-21. Coaches Paul and Sarah kept the same side for the second set and they slowly started to come alive. The pass was more controlled and Eli was beginning to find Tereza and Edyta. Tereza, in particular, began to hit with real authority. It was close and edgy still, but Athena won the second set 25-22. Athena begin to dominate Athena was now started to flow. More accurate passing allowed Eli to set beautifully and Edyta was showing great intelligence with her placing and Tereza was using her height to her maximum advantage. Through the middle, Sam was starting to fire and Julia was using her court-smarts to find holes in the Lincoln defence. The serving was more consistent, putting pressure on Lincoln who were making more and more mistakes. Athena eased to the third set 25-16. As Athena started to click into gear, Lincoln started to retreat and the fourth set was a . comfortable one. Amanda's serving was hitting its mark as was Eli's and Edyta and the whole team was beginning to move and adjust and play like a well-oiled team. Ioana had to be rushed onto court as an emergency outside hitter while Tereza had to leave the court for a couple of points for a nature break, but nothing phased the team now. Athena won the set 25-12. After such a long lay-off, it was a very good performance from Athena. They threw off any rustiness to dominate Lincoln and win their 5th match of the season. Eli wins MVP Well done to Eli for her MVP nomination but there were valuable contributions from everybody.
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