East Midlands Volleyball League
Sunday 31st March 2019 Derby Darkstar 3 Leicester Athena 1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-12) Athena's regional league team made an excellent start against Derby Darkstar but could not hold on to secure the victory. Athena started with Eli setting and Adela coming in as opposite to cover for the injured Julia and absent Ioana. Kamila and Marta began as middle hitters and Edyta and Algi were outside hitters ... and they started with a bang. They served hard, fought for every ball, chased every mishit pass and hit hard. From the noise and court and the smiles on their faces, you could see that they were in the "zone" and they put Darkstar onto the backfoot. It was close but strong serving by Kamila sealed the set 25-21. We knew that Darkstar would come back strong, they are a talented team and they didn't disappoint, but Athena held their nerve and carried on fighting and hitting the ball when it was there to be hit. Marta was immense at the net and Eli's setting was on teh money. It was another incredibly tight set, but this time, Darkstar managed to put in a set of strong serves at the end of the set to pull away 25-22. Alessandra replaced Algi and provided a different attacking dimension. Once again the set was close up until Darkstar's setter and MVP Kaminskaite sent over a series of devastating serves to pull ahead 16-8. It was a deficit that Athena just could not close and Darkstar closed it out 25-17. Sam now came on for Marta but Darkstar quickly jumped into a 10 point lead. Suddenly, Athena were looking tired and were no longer passing with the same relaxed fluidity. Milly came on for the visibly tiring Kamila and played well but nothing could stop a rampant Darkstar winning the fourth set 25-12 and winning the match 3-1. As Athena's MVP, Adela, said "We became too cautious in the second set, that is why we lost". That should not detract from the fact that, once again, Athena showed flashes of excellent play and there are signs that next season could be a very good one if this group stays together.
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