Tendring 1 - 3 Northampton

25-17, 15-25, 22-25, 10-25

Report by Mark Harris

 

Tendring entered the game with confidence high lying 3rd in Div 3 of the English National Volleyball league. The weekend triangular involving the top 3 teams was always going to be high octane and the spectators who turned up were not disappointed. Tendring started the match against 2nd place Northampton and were out of the blocks first and dominated the opposition with the best hitting display of the season. Linda Ziverte proved too hot to handle smacking the ball at a staggering pace scoring point after point. The north Essex team took the first set 25:13 and the game looked set for a straight sets win. However Northampton had other ideas as they mustered all their experience and started to attack the serve receive of Emily Mansfield, Vicky Leaper and Ziverte. With a drop in reception rate Hannah Robinson had to work hard to create any form of attack but once again combined well with Kat Harris who found gaps down the defensive line with hit after hit. However this did nothing to stop the onslaught as Northampton started to pull away from the girls. At 20:20 a controversial call by the ref gave advantage to the opposition and they won the set on 2 unforced errors 21:25. Liz White attacked well but made way for Kari Chase mid way through the third. Tendring didn’t give up and the 3rd set went point for point with neither team dominating until a loss of concentration allowed Northampton 2 easy points taking the set 22:25. By now the team were feeling the depth of the oppositions experience and couldn’t respond losing the match 3:1.