NVL Men - Sussex Dolphins (H) Match Report 2009-10

Tendring V.C. 3 – 0 Sussex Dolphins

25-17, 25-21, 25-13

Report by Alex Porter

Tendring Release Dolphins Out To Sea

Tendring V.C. men team went into today's game thinking that Sussex Dolphins would be pushing for promotion but 63 minutes later the team had a very different opinion.

The match started well for Tendring with the home crowd watching Chapman serve Tendring to a 4-1 lead. The service pressure continued which gave both Jones and Davies easy blocks. Jones scored an ace with one of his easy but actually really difficult servers to take Tendring 10-8 up. Both teams traded points until a couple of silly errors by Tendring gave Sussex a 15-14 lead, which forced Porter to call his first time-out. Porter pointed out some weaknesses in the Sussex rotation. Masters went straight back out and tipped an inch perfect ball to the middle of Sussex's court, leaving all 6 Sussex players standing there with their mouths wide open.

This put smiles on the Tendring player's faces and gave them the fire to turn the game around. Dove and Jones scored two easy kill blocks, followed by Masters trying to copy them. Widlarz then introduced himself to the game with a powerful pipe attack that almost took off Sussex's 6 players head.

Davies then showed his guts by diving into the crowd to pull a ball back, which was duly converted by Masters. Sussex then served out giving Tendring a 20-16 lead, which also caused them to call a time-out. Jones blocked Sussex's first attack, Widlarz then increased the pressure on Sussex with one of his trademark cross court kills. Masters followed this up with an ace. With his second serve Sussex were made to scramble for the ball. Widlarz then pounded one down the line to win the set 25-17.

Tendring started the second set with the same line to keep the pressure on Sussex. With some good around team play, Widlarz, Masters and Davies put Tendring 4-0. A couple of silly error by us gave Sussex a glimmer of hope but Dove had a beautiful short through 4 to maintain Tendring's lead. At 11-9 up Tendring's defence was finding Sussex's hitting to be easy work. This lead to Tendring relaxing and letting Sussex back in the set every couple of points. Suddenly it was 17-16 to Sussex and Porter was forced to call a time-out, he told his men that we'd reduced our service pressure and our defence had got complacent. The boys went back out and dug in deep. At 20-19 to Sussex, Porter switched Widlarz for new signing Australian Chris Todd. Todd powered passed the Sussex block like there was no block. Sussex tried to change around their system but it ended in disarray. For the next 5 points Sussex didn't stand a chance, the flood gates had opened. At set point Jones gently tipped a middle attack into the middle of court, both teams started to walk off when the referrer decided it was a carry. Masters then passed a perfect ball, Davies set Todd who pounded the ball into the middle of court to win, same result second time around.

In set three Chinnery's passing was faultless, which allowed Davies to run a every position, making life very difficult for Sussex. At 7-4 Sussex's heads had dropped. Chapman had free range in the middle and killed every ball he touched. Jones serves were causing real problems for Sussex. Chaney came on for Chapman at 13-7, the big man got straight into the game and scored two kills. At 19-11 Masters managed to power a shot down the line that hits Sussex no 7 square in the face. At 20-11 Porter called a double substitution Widlarz for Masters and J. Everett for Jones. Todd continued to confused Sussex by hitting over the block, around the block, through the block and under the block. Dove nailed a 10 ball down the line giving Tendring a 22-13 lead. Davies then pulled an ace out of the bag to give Tendring match point. Widlarz launched a bomb of a cross court attack, winning Tendring the third and final set 25-13 and ultimately an easy 3-0 win.