Tuesday 25 February 2014

A close game for Devils!

With the teams warming up to the retro cheese that Brinee loves, the already large crowd got a boost by the late arrival of East Grinstead Men's first team following a mad dash across the county from Hastings.  With the Latvian's on the tambourine and Craig and Mark making plenty of noise the atmosphere was fantastic!

Devils had a full squad apart from Paula who was missing the fun to do Uni work and Gemma who was hopefully saving herself for next week, it was good to see her and Howard come along and support though!  Sintija finally seems to be getting the hang of this Captain malarkey and won the toss for the second time this year!

A cagey opening few points saw the scores even until Agata stepped up to serve, giving Worthing a 7 point lead. East Grinstead rallied and fought back with strong serving from Dani which along with rare serve receive errors and a lack of communication saw EG come back into the game before Trees started finding holes in their defence. Slowly Worthing edged ahead but with both teams picking up lots of balls and never giving up there were plenty of long rallies and tense moments before we reached the 25-18 conclusion.

The only change in the second set was bringing Robyn on to set.  This was a much stronger set from Devils who sided out first time on each rotation.  Sabrina coming on front court for Robyn had an immediate impact (once she remembered she wasn't playing through four) putting a big block on their outside hitters and putting them under pressure with her aggressive attacks.  Sintija adjusted well to her new role as back court setter spreading the ball and throwing the odd second ball over. Devils rode their luck on a couple of points with the 33 from East Grinstead hitting a great power hit through the middle, only for Amy to play it off her shoulder with a casual flick for a text book pass into two and on the next point Agata pulled out her trade mark kick after a poor ball in, only to perfectly set up Sintija who didn't let the opportunity pass to hit a screamer! Worthing finished a more comfortable 25-8 winners.

Those people thinking that EG's heads would drop after that set were very much mistaken, following the team talk between sets they came back on court ready to fight it out.  In the tightest set of the day neither team could get a run of serves together to build a lead of more than a point throughout the set.  Paulina and the EG Libero were picking up most of our serves forcing Devils to work hard recycling their attacks.  Sabrina through two again proved to the naysayers she can jump by making it to a surprise shoot and killing it with venom!  With emotions running high both teams were hitting hard and working to get the ball back, with  Chantelle and Agata making some fantastic pick ups. Chantelle's confidence was up helping carry Devils over the finish line with her hitting back and front court finding gaps.  Devils just managed to find the last couple of points at the end of the set for Worthing to edge it 26-24, but it could have gone either way!

MVP went to Chantelle but it must have been a close call between her and Agata!
A great game was finished with a cheeky half in the Northstar with the majority of the  East Grinstead team and supporters.  Up next is Brighton1 for Devils, while Demons take on East Grinstead's second ladies team tonight (Monday 24th Feb)





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