We started the first set with Josh and Dom through the middle, Iain and Kishan as the outside hitters and Matt Wilkes and Martin as Opposite and Setter. After a great first serve and an early comedy moment on Wilko's second serve where he had to dive halfway across the court to reach his mis-thrown toss, the Jets settled quickly and with solid hitting and serving from everyone especially Iain. Thanks to the net being owned by the Jets it was very quiet back court, this along with a freezing hall lead to some sloppy first balls in from easy free balls which Martin made the most of and the set was quickly over.
Round two saw us continuing to follow Andy's cunning master plan bringing on Bernard for Iain and Matt Lay for Dom. Again Jets started strongly with only one ball hitting the deck without a Worthing hand touching it. With better first balls in Martin was able to open up the middle and Jets were cruising to a comfortable lead 16ish - 4 thanks to Matt Lay setting the tone for the set early on through dominating the net and absolutely killing a couple of quick balls. Martin then decided to see if we could finish without him, bringing Dom on to replace him and passing the setting duties to Wilko. The end of the set was a little scrappy including a rotation fault by us which was quickly spotted by the eagle eyed Luis however with some good setting which Bernard used to find the gap down the line and Josh to create havoc though the middle Jets closed the second set. However Panthers noses were up after a strong finish going into the tricky third set.
Round Three saw us mix it up again with Iain playing Opposite (much to his delight as it meant he wouldn't be Liberoed off) and Dom came on for Josh. With Panthers stepping it up and the Jets slipping into their traditional third setitus, finally the back court had more to do and woke up with strong covering of the block by Bernard we got it back to 19-19 and showed our desire to have a strong finish to the season and keep the pressure on Hastings by going on to win the set. With tough games coming up against Llamados and Sharks it was great to see the Jets determination and focus to win in three sets.
A big thank you to the ever reliable Nigel and his team of glamorous officials (Luis, Jon, Amy and Mel along with some poor student Wilko press ganged into it). It was also great to see the Vipers along with our missing coach come down and support us after their 3-0 victory over Storrington - Well done Guys!
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