NVL Women Oxford Students (A) Match Report 2010-11

Tendring Women vs Oxford Students

0-3 (21-25, 18-25, 13-25)

Report by Hannah Robinson

After a long Christmas break, the Tendring ladies were back at training this week and ready to take on their next match. After a great finish at the end of 2010, the team was beginning to gel and were seeing some significant improvements both through individual performances and also shown in the match scores.

Oxford were the first team that Tendring played at the start of the season which was a tough match and ended in a 3-0 loss, so the ladies were eager to see how far they had come since then.

Mark Harris was clear on what he was ex

pecting from the team; communication and lots of attacking. This was a team that could be beaten if the girls kept control of the tempo of the game and denied Oxford the chance to attack.

As they entered the first set, Tendring had won the serve and minds were set on establishing a clear attack from the start. Our first points were won thanks to some dominant hitting through the middle and Liz White was soon picked out by the opposition as the ‘favourite hitter’. Controlled passing from Vicky Southgate meant that it was easy to vary the sets and keep the Oxford blockers on their toes and Tendring began to grow more confident as they were matching Oxford, who are currently top of the league table, point for point throughout the set. Towards the end of the set however, Tendring lost momentum through a lapse in communication and Oxford were able to creep back in the business end of the set and take it with a score of 21-25.

After a narrow defeat in the first set, Tendring were beginning to believe that they could steal the win from Oxford. Mark Harris made some changes through the middle bringing Kerry Skinner on to create a different attack. This meant that Oxford once again had to adjust to Tendring’s attack and took a long time to respond. Some intelligent and powerful serving from Linda Ziverte allowed Tendring to settle back into the match and to utilise the range of attackers they had. A number of well-fought rallies allowed Gemma Harvey and Vicky Southgate to make some outstanding pick-ups that gave Tendring a massive mental boost which was needed as they closed in on the end of the second set.

Kari Cock and Emily Mansfield continued Tendring’s run of tough serving, which showed Oxford that they were by no means going to hand over the set. Despite this, Tendring had grown quiet and had allowed Oxford to change the tempo of the game. This led to a loss in the second set with a score of 18-25.

Going into the last set, Mark Harris pointed out that at this point Tendring had nothing to lose. He changed his rotation again, moving Linda Ziverte into the middle to offer some height to the Tendring block. Vicky Southgate was also moved to the outside position, spreading the Tendring attack across the net. At this point in the game Tendring were low. They had fought hard to stay with Oxford and felt they deserved a more even result. Kat Harris used this point in the match to settle the team and try to establish focus on court. The girls needed to be clever about their play and try to re-establish their own attack, as Oxford were unable to respond as long as Tendring were hitting.

Hannah Robinson began the set with some powerful serving most of which Oxford were unable to return. This created a solid base for the set and allowed Tendring to gain back some control. Gemma Harvey was able to dominate the serve receive allowing Tendring to regain possession after they had lost a point.

Unfortunately, Oxford proved to be the more superior team and took advantage of the moments when tendring had lost momentum. The final set finished with Oxford beating Tendring 13-25.

Although the game resulted in a loss for the Tendring Ladies team, they played to a much higher standard than the last time they met Oxford in National League, and proved that they deserved to have been promoted last season. If there girls continue to play to the same standard throughout the remainder of the season, there is no doubt that this effort will soon begin to offer results.