Tendring Title Clash

Tendring 2 - 3 Northampton

25-9, 23-25, 21-25, 25-14, 11-15
Report by Hannag Robinson

After a dominating season so far, Tendring Ladies were up against their toughest challenge yet this weekend, as they faced Northampton and Herts who were also fighting for the top of the table spot. Coaches Mark Harris and Nick Davies made it clear to the team that these two matches would be of a much higher level to those that they had played already, meaning that there was no room for complacency.

The first match was against Northampton; after a good warm up, Tendring were pumped up and ready to begin the day on a high. Intelligent serving throughout the team and relentless attacking at the net from Robyn Sawyer lead the way as Tendring took an early lead. The Northampton side had no response to the attack and were only able to offer an easy ball in return which Tendring took full advantage of. The first set ended with a dominating win for Tendring 25-9.

After this positive start, it was clear that the opposition would only get better and so the home team would have to maintain their high standards if they were going to take the match. The Northampton side had had a chance to warm up and began to attack the ball testing Tendring’s defences. Some impressive defensive work from Sophie Haydon and some controlled serve receive from Hannah Robinson told the opposition that they were not going to give up the match without a fight. Strong hitting from Linda Ziverte matched Northampton’s attack but after a wobble in confidence, Northampton narrowly took the second set 25-23.

After another tight finish in the third set, Tendring were moving into the fourth 2-1 down, but were by no means ready to give up the fight. Taking it back to basics, Emily Mansfield lead the way at the net playing some intelligent shots. Becky Saunders was also able to distribute the ball across
the net thanks to some dominating passing back court from Robyn Sawyer. Northampton clearly had a favourite hitter; Tendring were able to pick this out early on in the game, and Liz White took command of the net with Ziverte creating a wall that their hitter could not penetrate. After taking out the attack early on, Tendring were able to make use of their own hitters and take the fourth set 25-14.

The last set saw another wobble from Tendring as they questioned their abilities and stopped attacking. Northampton took advantage of this and a strong offensive meant that they took the final set 15-11 handing Tendring their first loss of the season.