NVL Men Brentwood (A) Match Report 2009-10

Tendring V.C 3 - 0 Brentwood Estonians

25-11,25-10,25-11

Report by Alex Porter

Tendring Over Power Local Rivals

Sunday 21^st September saw the National Volleyball League season start with a bang. After 6 weeks of pre-season training with new head coach Neil Masters and assistant coach Alex Porter, Tendring had to wait an extra 15 minutes before they could see if it had been worth it, as a car of Brentwoods players got stuck behind an accident on the A12. You could see in the Tendring faces that they were just itching to get on court and let rip. Masters had a number of new players at his disposal this year, including two of the tallest players in the league, Sonny Chaney and Joe Cook. Although the two biggest signings over the summer was former England player Neil Masters who has come out of retirement to player/coach and former Division 2 player Stuart Dove.

Once Brentwood's team was complete the game began. Brentwood have long been Tendring's arch rivals, so both teams were up to take this years bragging rights. Although today was going to be different because Brentwood had filed a predominately junior starting line up. Brentwood started with a service error and Tendring didn’t let them back into the game. Sebastian Widlarz put his weight behind the ball on his serve to take an early lead of 6-1, which forced the Brentwood coach (Tony Clark) to call a time out. Widlarz powered home two more times before losing focus and served the ball out the back of the court, giving Brentwood a chance of pulling some points out. Tendring didn’t give them that chance, a light weight serve landed perfectly on Masters arms giving Nick Davies the option to set any of his hitters. He chose new boy Stuart Dove with a quick attack. Dove powered the ball into the 3m line and turned around a saw his new team mates over the moon that he'd got his first kill for his new team. Aaron Jones then went back to serve and with his normal delicate finesse placed 4 serves in the most difficult position for the opposite, earning 3 points in the process. Again Brentwood didn't take the chance and Tendring easily convert their serve. Dove then went to serve and played some amazing defence. The teams went on to trade points with Tendring scoring points at ease. Sonny Chaney came on at the end to earn his first NVL appearance along with Jamie Everett. Chaney served for set point but the pressure got to him and he served it into the net. Masters then passed and killed the next ball, winning the set 25-11

The second set started with a few silly errors as the players didn’t put as much pressure on their serves and maybe the fact they had just walked the previous set. After it settled down at 5-4 Jones had a wonderful few points hitting through the middle and right side, making Brentwood's block look very weak. Masters and Chinnery both served strong and increased the lead to 9 points. Brentwood’s defence got a lot of practice and to be fair they did raise their game but Tendring just kept coming at them with Masters, Dove and Widlarz powering smashes at them. Joe Cook then got his first chance to play in NVL. Tendring finished the set off in style. With Brentwood only winning 1 point from their service this was a true performance of clinical volleyball.

In set three Brentwood again only scored one 1 point from their serve, making life all to easy for Tendring. Masters got a chance introduce the Everett brothers and Chaney again, with all three performing well. Brentwood's block couldn’t handle the power or speed of the Tendring attack which made life easier for Tendring's players. All 6 players on court got the chance to attack with Davies and Chinnery linking up well to open up the right side of court. Dove was a menace at the net the whole way through the game. At match point Jamie Everett is set an open net by Davies and he duly kills the ball. Game, Set, Match Tendring.

MVP : Neil Masters.