Newmarket Volleyball Club

Mens National League 3E
Saturday 24th November 2007

v
Brentwood
Harriers

Taking their time acclimatising to the arctic conditions inside the RAF hanger, Newmarket Domino's quickly found themselves trailing in the first set, and with a major change to their defensive system it soon became to big a task to claw back enough points to make a game of it and allowed a confident Brentwood side to ease into a one set lead.

Having now settled into some kind of rhythm, Newmarket started to score well and found themselves competing. Quality passing from Paul Freeman from the back row allowed solo setter Ben Child to run the attacking play confusing the opposition, this combined with the accurate hitting from Pete Saunders and power plays from Nik Mezanov saw Newmarket draw level on sets at 25-21.

The third set continued to be close, Brentwood who are currently top of the league managed to just stay ahead after getting their block together, and despite Kelvin Cheung finding his range with some devastating hitting, Newmarket saw the set slip 25-22.

The fourth set again saw a reversal of fortunes with Newamrket giving the better start. Peter Gale played well in the middle position which in turn earned him a disputed MVP award, and paring this to a defensive system that was starting to take effect Newmarket closed out at 25-20 resulting in a tie break set.

Oh dear! Newmarket's mind set now seemed to be in the flow of recent results and played against them, much to the enjoyment of Brentwood who quickly racked up the points to change ends with a strong lead. Some strong words from coach Pete Saunders effected a slight improvement from the team but alas it was all too late and Newmarket finished behind at 15-8. Overall a good effort with some good points to take back to the next training session.

MVP - Pete Gale

The second game was to be against home side the RAF, who had previously lost to Brentwood 3-0 giving Newmarket hope of some points from todays double header, only to be shocked into a very quick first set defeat 25-15.

Things improved in the second set, Paul Freemans continued accurate passing allowed the front court to dominate and score enough points to overturn the deficit a very close 27-25, proving that under pressure they could still hold themselves together.

The third set started with neither side really showing as favourite, until Newmarket with no substitutes started to wain, at this point Harriers savagely ran away with a string of points and secured the set 25-15.

A stronger showing from a very tired away team wasn't quite enough. Kelvin Cheung managed to score points and earn himself yet another MVP award but the home side had players in reserve to give them the edge and take the set 25-21.

MVP - Kelvin Cheung