NVL Men - Brentwood (H) Match Report 2009-10

Young ones given a chance to shine

Tendring 3-1 Brentwood Estonians

25-12, 25-18, 24-26, 25-19

After completely destroying Brentwood on the opening day of the season Tendring where looking to do the double of their arch rivals.

Set 1

There were two changes to the normal starting line up, Channey replaced Jones and Cook replaced J. Everett. Channy and Cook are the two tallest players in the division and were opposite probably two of the shortest middle players in the divison..

Davies got the match off to a great start by letting Brentwood know they he intended to use the obvious advantage in the middle with two quick set to Cook which he duly converted, Tendring took the lead. Cook then went back to serve a put the Brentwood passing unit under pressure with his very flat float serve. This gave the Tendring defence an easy life as the Brentwood attack was weak. Davies carried on setting the middle which Channey made light work of. Tendring found themselves at 14-6 up without having to do much. Davies started to vary his setting which made life very difficult for the Brentwood block. Dove produced some amazing cross court attacks leaving the Brentwood defence puzzled.  Tendring made light work of the Brentwood service  with Chinney taking total control of the passing unit. Masters finished the set off with a kill down the line, 25-12.

Set 2

Chapman replaced cook and Jones replaced Widlarz from the start of the set but the rest remained unchanged. It seemed like Brentwood lost the ability to jump as each of the Tendring attackers hit over the top of their respective blockers.  Chapman used his speed to open up holes in the Brentwood block and scored a few cheeky points. There was some good team work amongst the Tendring defence as the Brentwood was not the same style as the other NVL teams. Channey continued to produce some incredible attacking shots, sometimes even he didn’t know where they were going or how they were scoring points but it worked. A cross court hit by Jones put Channy in to serve. Channey seemed to be totally in the zone as he produced 5 serves in a row, 3 of them didn’t even make it back over the net. Cook replaced Chapman half way through the set and instantly got in on the point scoring. Dove maintained his agility in defence picking up the scraps of the Brentwood attacks. Masters then produced a powerful cross court attack to win the set, 25-18.

Set 3

Coach Porter decided to give all the young guns a chance to get some match experience. The line up consisted of Davies setting, Jones as opposite,  Chapman and R. Everett in the middle and Overton-White and J. Everett as left side players. With such a different line up there was going to be some problems with communication, which was fine as it was all about the experience. Both teams traded points until 4-4 when R. Everett produced two kills in a row. Chinnery maintained his passing states with 95% of balls landing on top of Davies head. This allowed Davies to set all attackers and keep the Brentwood blockers honest. R. Everett and Chapman continued to score points in the middle which keep Tendring in the game. The lead bounced between the teams until Brentwood took a 4 point lead at 18-14, which put a few nerves in the Tendring team but they showed some courage and J. Everett and Jones produced a couple of kills each to put the scored back to 20-20. The teams again traded points until Tendring had match point at 24-23 but the best attack of the match from Brentwood saved it, 24-24. Both teams now looked really nervous and the set looked like it would be decided by the toss of a coin. The game got scrappy as each team didn’t want to make an error or take a chance. A silly net touch by Tendring gave Brentwood set point which was won on their first attempt by some miscommunication.  24-26

Set 4

MVP

Remained of match report to follow