U18 Boys National Championships Round 1 Report 2011-12

 This month has been very busy with the first round of the National Junior Volleyball Championships.

Under 18 Mens

On Sunday 4th December Tendring hosted the first round of the Under 18 Mens National Volleyball Championships. This was again a six team pool with teams travelling from Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Whitechapel, Chadwell Heath and Barnet.

The team was made up of Sonny Chaney (captain), Jack Bruce, Mike Kao, James Baker, Mitchell Lawrence, James Taggart, Harry Castle, Matt Murray-Downing, Sam Hensley, Ben Ward-Cochrane and Tom Akiens (libero).

The first two matches came and went without much of a problem. Tendring simply annihilated both Norwich and  Chadwell Heath in consecutive matches. Ben Ward-Cochrane’s setting was helped out by an awesome receiving team in James Baker, Tom Akiens, Mitchell Lawrence and Jack Bruce.

Our third match was against the much under-rated team Lynx team from Whitechapel. Lynx came out with all guns blazing and some powerful hitting from one of their star players. Tendring struggled to contain his attack and began to increase the intensity of our own attacking. Both teams traded points throughout the first set, but Tendring committed a few too many offensive errors and lost the set in a close battle. The second set went Tendring way allowing them to score a vital point for the match.

Our fourth match was meant to be quite a simple affair with the relatively inexperienced opposition in Barnet. The first set went according to the script with Tendring taking the set in a very comfortable fashion. The second set went accordingly and with the score at 12-1 Harry Castle and Mike Kao were given their first taste of National Championships Volleyball. Barnet’s main player Nathan Fullerton had an incredible run of form from the service line and Tendring were forced to reverse the substitutions to ensure we could secure the win. Tendring came out eventual winners 2 sets to nil.

The final match of the day for Tendring was against Great Yarmouth. Tendring needed to win a set to ensure that they would go through to the second round of the National Championships. Both teams started tentatively, not wanting to give away easy points and at 13-12 the match was finely balanced. Some strong hitting from Sonny Chaney and James Baker helped to extend the Tendring lead but it was a rare display of both power and finesse from Jack Bruce that turned the set in Tendrings favour helping them to an important win. Having qualified for the Second Round of the National Championships, the boys went out and had a good time in the second set with Sonny Chaney coming up with one of the biggest hits of the day, linking up with Ben Ward-Cochrane on a perfectly set reverse set, spiking the ball down onto the Great Yarmouth three metre line.

The boys will be travelling to the Boswells School in Chelmsford on the 22nd January to compete in the Second Round.