Newmarket Volleyball Club

Cambridge Superleague
Sunday 4th November 2007

v
St Phillips
Harriers

After recent poor performances from Newmarket in the national league, some much improved play against easier opposition in the Cambridge Super-league was what was needed to boost the confidence before the next national weekend in 2 weeks time.

St Phillips were the first to oblige. Pips had few attacking options in the first set, but errors that have slipped into recent play for Dominos allowed Pips to remain in the set. The set was evenly matched until 21-21. it was then that Dominos started to gel and managed to close out the set 25-22.

Set 2 started similarly but the link play only brought about by playing together came to fruition when Rob found his range for both Paul Freeman and Peter Gale to kill the ball. With JP continuing to jump serve well and the timely substitution that brought Nik into the back line, Newmarket finished the set comfortably.

Dominos were then in the unusual situation for only the second time this year, where they could win 3-0. Having cut out the errors and with Pete Saunders finally settling back into his setters position of old, Newmarket continued to dominate. The introduction of Pips National League player Paul Day upped the level but by that time it was too late as Newmarket had clicked and seemed to play at a higher level to cope.

Final result 3-0

Harriers are a team that have been together for years and this was apparent as they were well organised.

Newmarket were able to capitalise on the warm-up game previously and started quickest, quickly secured an 8-2 lead which was never to be lost and the set took a mere 14 minutes.

With 3 of our newest players JP, Nik and Eric playing alongside more experienced partners this was a good test of the teams communication and teamwork skills. Eric flung himself across court several times to keep the ball alive and there were good pick-ups from Rob, Peter G and Paul F. This solid defence allowed good attacks to build with both Nik and JP swinging hard to win points. Pete S kept Harriers guessing with some fine setting and some intelligent 2nd ball dumps.

The 3rd set was a good test of character as Dominos got stuck on a rotation to go 7 points behind. With some excellent passing from the whole team and some simple volleyball being played, Newmarket managed to find their step again to close the gap and eventually win the set by 3 points 25-22.

Overall Newmarket 6 - 0 Opposition. A good weekend that hopefully can be capitalised on to bring wins against Brentwood and RAF Harriers on the 24th November.