SAVILLS and NashCopy enjoyed straightforward wins over the Orchard teams in the OSA Recruitment men’s league, although one was pushed harder than the other.
Nashcopy were rarely troubled in their 3-0 win over Orchard Events.
It was evident from the outset that it was going to be difficult for OE as their opponents were playing well and they struggled to find their form.
The first pass continues to be the elusive touch OE need, but when they did find the setter, they looked more at ease. Matt Ballay, making his return to the volleyball scene, worked tirelessly on the back court with Sam Loveridge and Richard Skipper, but they had no answer to their opponents’ clinical spiking.
For their part, NashCopy needed to do little more than ensure the ball went over the net to put Events under pressure.
Savills took on Orchard PR, but put in a poor team performance with the lack of consistent first pass making it difficult to attack to their usual standard. Accurate serving kept the pressure on, but apart from that Savills still made hard work of the match.
Orchard PR battled well throughout the game and showed a clear improvement on the previous week, but Savills notched up a straight-sets win.
In the women’s league, NRG were unlucky to lose in the deciding set against ASL2.
Despite missing regulars, ASL started well and coach Chris Martel stepped in as setter. Although NRG fought hard, ASL wrapped up the first set comfortably.
NRG started the second in a more determined manner and, despite some inconsistent setting, the spiking of Edita Meziniece and Kate Worthington allowed them to level the match.
In the third NRG quickly established a lead which they held and extended to go one set up.
Fortunately for ASL2, support from the balcony boosted their confidence in the fourth set. Jemma Martel-Welsh and Martel finally began to find the empty spaces on the NRGi court. Serves were penetrating the NRGi defence and ASL were back on form, taking the match to the deciding set.
Obviously still on the up, ASL came out strongly and soon closed a comfortable set win to take the match.
Inter-club clash NashCopy versus Gestetner proved to be a close battle, but more through an even level of mistakes than outstanding play by the teams.
With both teams missing regular players, a number of new signings joined the ranks and fitted well into the set-up.
Gestetner looked the stronger when they took the first set, but NashCopy then settled into their rhythm and found the holes in the Gestetner defence.
Lack of communication and inconsistent passing made it difficult for the Gestetner setters to feed their attackers properly, despite the hard work of MVP captain Kat Gillespie throughout the game.
NashCopy won the next three sets to seal the win.
Article posted on 22nd November, 2008 - 9.30am
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