Jets beat Storrington to secure Div1 status.

The Jets faced Storrington knowing that they had to win the match to stay in Div1 next season! The Jets started with Martin setter and Dom opposite, Matt and Josh through the middle and Luis and Marlon through the outside. The first set was very tense with Storrington taking an early lead which they maintained until the Jets edged ahead to take a 1-0 lead. By now Bernard was playing through the outside and started the second set very strong. Again the Jets struggled to keep with Storrington until strong words from Martin helped turn things around to lead 2-0. In the third set Jets mixed things up with Matt Wilkes playing opposite and Iain coming on as well, but Storrington had found their form and won the set to take it in to a fourth. Back to the second set rotation for the Jets, but Storrington just managed to close out a very tense set to take it to a deciding set. Time to get serious! With one point in it at the turn around both teams continued to trade points until the Jets edged ahead to win 15-13. In the most competitive league for many many years the Jets just managed to beat a strong and well matched team to secure their div 1 future. Bernard saved his best performance for his last ever match for the Jets and Marlon had a very strong game. It was a good all performance and we now have one game left against Eastbourne in a few weeks time.

Vipers update - better late than never!

A very busy period of matches for the Vipers with games against Arun, Eastbourne and Brighton Adur. The Vipers travelled away to Arun without Andrew, Nigel, Turbo, Jimmy, Richard and Mark due to a selection of injuries, holidays and work commitments. To ensure the match went ahead Josh, Martin, Matt and Dom from the Jets joined vipers survivors Andy, Damo, Edvin and an injured Mickey to play a very strong Arun team. Arun edged a first set with strong hitting, but the Vipers won the second set thanks to good hitting from Damo and much improved coverage in back court. Arun came back strong in a close third set before winning the fourth with relative ease. Given the reduced strength of the Vipers they did not disgrace themselves against a very strong hitting Arun team that are now odds on favourites to win the league. Next the Vipers travelled away to play Eastbourne, but welcomed back Nigel and Richard whilst retaining the middle hitting from Josh. Eastbourne were well up for the match and the Vipers just managed to win the first set 26 - 24 and you can see the final points on the Eastbourne web site including a highly entertaining "ave it" moment from Grant! The next two sets were close, but the Vipers won 3-0 with Andy picking up MVP and strong performances from Nigel and Mickey. Last Sunday saw the Vipers play Brighton Adur at home with a full squad except for Mark and Jimmy. An ill tempered start to the match was won by the Vipers despite the visitors continually questioning decisions from the officials and line judges! The second and third sets were won by the Vipers despite a strong effort from Adur with great blocking from Andrew and MVP Nigel. With only one game to go the Vipers should finish second and look forward to the Sussex cup and SEVA tournaments.

The National league victories keep rolling in.....just!

The last home games of the season started well with the team arriving early and helping set up the court, with the pleasant surprise of Mel and Nigel being there looking tanned if a little tired after an early flight home from their ski trip.  A quick team photo was taken with the amazing cupcakes from Mia's bakery, when the coach realised he had left the player registration cards at home.  A mad dash across town thanks to Anne(part of team Farley) and we are back just in time!

Cardiff Celts were up first, Worthing started with Robyn and Sintija, Gem and Em, and Chantelle and Amy. Chantelle settled the early nervous with a run of seven serves to give Worthing an early 7-2 lead from there everyone relaxed and played well with good first balls into Robyn.  Gemma owned the net in the first set putting up a good block and winning points with her hits and sneaky short serve.

The second set saw Celts come back stronger and work Worthing harder.  Agata and Brinee came on for Em and Chantelle but the rest of the team stayed the same. Again the power serves caused trouble for Celts especially from Sintija and Sabrina.  Robyn set well and Amy and Sintija especially hit a number of clean winners.

Worthing fielded the same team in the third set although Celts took an early lead and it wasn't until the under arm bullet serves from Amy started raining in that Worthing's heads came up.  Agata and Brinee were front court forcing Celts to roll over their blocks and Worthing recycled well.  Robyn as always looked for any opportunity to hit the second ball over and pulled off a nice hit, between setting well. Worthing won the match 25-12, 25-15 and 25-16.

Time for a quick lunch break and for the team to give Gemma her birthday goodies! Finally we could eat the beautiful cupcakes from http://www.fatcakesdesign.co.uk andthe honey cake which Madara Baldere made - yum!

The crowd grew for the big game Wessex vs Worthing and just when you though it had reached capacity even more people wondered in.  It was a diverse crowd, pretty evenly split between Latvians and Farley's, but they all made plenty of noise!

Worthing started with a strong opening line-up with Trees, Chantelle, Em, Brinee, Sintija and Mel. It was a close opening set with neither team able to open up much of a lead.   Chantelle's serving at 16 - 17 to take us up to 21 was a key run of points that gave Worthing the momentum to close the set strongly with Trees mixing some power hitting and dumps into the hole.

The second set saw the same team start except Agata came on for Brinee.  Wessex sided out too comfortable in this set and Worthing's head's dropped when they struggled getting off the Wessex Captain's service run.  This was compounded by a couple of basic errors serving into the net and rotation faults leading to Wessex winning 25 - 17.

In the third set Worthing went back to their original starting six.  Again Wessex started well getting an early lead of 11-5, Worthing scrapped back and with strong hitting from Sintija and Trees levelled the score 21-21 before Wessex closed the set 25-23.

Worthing started the fourth set slowly and still looked demoralised and unfocused after losing the last set after throwing everything into a spirited come back .  Wessex again started well with strong hitting through both the outside and middle building a lead of 12-6.  Worthing made  a number of silly errors and it was the third rotation fault of the game that caused Chantelle to have a few quiet words with the team and the ref to have a few words with her that really turned the game.  Worthing switched on, Robyn (on for Mel) did well chasing down stray first balls and Sintija and Trees started finding gaps down the line.  Sabrina even pulled out a dive or two to keep the ball alive and give Worthing a chance to turn the game!  Worthing pulled it back to 18-20 down but kept pushing and at 23-23 Sintija stepped up to serve and in her usual cool and calm manner served the game out forcing the fifth set.

The last set started much the same as the previous with both teams playing well but Worthing didn't let Wessex get a lead with the score 8-7 at the change of ends.  Solid serving from Robyn with three attackers front court took Worthing to 13-7 and it was at this point Brinee decided she wanted to finish this game.  Trees might have called for the ball but Brinee stole it and put away a screamer, Wessex over passed the next ball and Brinee's eye's lit up and BOOOOM another clean winner.  Worthing finished strong to win the last set 9-15....Phew!

This was by far the toughest match Worthing have played this season,against a really good opposition. The game could have gone either way and both teams played well dominating for periods.  MVP's went to Sintija in both games .

Just one more weekend of National League Volleyball to go this season with a win needed to guarantee automatic promotion to Div2 - Come on Worthing!   

Devils still going strong!

Devils had a skeleton crew for the game against Brighton Teela, with Mel skiing, Agata at a pub quiz with the other mums (congratulations on second place and winning £79, the first round is on you at the next social!), Trees taking one for the team and scoring (thank you), and Paula studying hard.  That meant Em got to chill out on the bench having played beach volleyball for two hours followed by two more hours of 2 on 3 indoors!  Happily we had Gemma back in the fold playing in the middle with Brinee, Chantelle and Amy through the outside and Sintija and Robyn opposite and setter.

In the first set Devils had their traditional slow start and were 5 points down quickly, with Teela playing and serving well.  As always Sintija lead by example, always cajoling the team, calling for the ball and putting in huge amounts of effort.  Once Gemma stepped up to with her new power serves Devils were back in the mix at 6-5 up and they slowly pulled away from there.  Amy's bullet serves added four more points with Brinee helping through dominating the net.  When Gemma got to front court she showed what Devils had been missing making five or six big blocks. Devils took the first set 25-14.

The same team started the second set cutting out a number of errors and serving well.  Robyn front court was keen to get in on the action stealing a few first balls, luckily they were good passes and Sintija enjoyed having the opportunity to set. Chantelle calling for pipe balls used the back court attack effectively.  This was a much tighter set with Teela covering the court well and putting Devils under pressure with consistent serving and good work front court.  Again Amy's serve was effective and front court Brinee and Chantelle were picking up the points, which lead to a closer 25-21 win for Devils.

For a change there were only five supporter for a home game, while Carl looked like he had fallen asleep at one end and Craig was unusually quiet without his partner in crime, the two Latvians continued to create more noise that I thought was humanly possible!

In the third set Sintija and Brinee found their serving shoes from last Monday building a lead early on that they didn't look like relinquishing.   There were a couple of wobbles, but Chantelle was focused on winning in straight sets and rallied the troops covering corner to corner, which in turn made everyone else pick up their game, ensuring that Devils won the key (and some very long) rallies.  Robyn was setting well to Sintija and the middles which they converted into points and soon the third set was over 25-14.

Chantelle was given the MVP award after doing a fantastic job playing at six covering the whole of the back court, consistently serving well and hitting a few tasty spikes.

A big thank you to Iain, Steve, Dani and Chantelle's Mum for ensuring that the game could take place with a full complement of officials! Only one local league game to go - Dolphins1 on 6th April!

Video Highlights From Devils v East Grinstead

Its taken a while, but finally worked out how to upload the video highlights from the recent Devils match against East Grinstead.

AGM and key messages

As we are approaching the end of the season we are starting to make arrangements for the Club AGM, the details are below along with a few other bits and pieces... 

Annual General Meeting
We will be holding the Worthing Volleyball Club AGM on Tuesday 6th May.  It will follow the format of previous years and will be held in the Function room at John Selden Pub, Half Moon Lane, BN13 2HN. 19:30 - Meet in the bar for a drink.20:00 - There will be a choice of two free curries for all paid up members or an alternative for those that don't want a curry.20:30/21:00 - The AGM will be held were we report on this year and consider arrangements for the next year (League entries, subscriptions etc)The meeting will include various awards for the year, some serious and some just for fun. Then more drinking! To help ensure we order enough food and can start thinking about next year can you let me know1) Whether or not you will be attending the AGM2) Would you like the curry or an alternative3) Do you want to play in the indoor league next season (September 2014 - April 2015) 

Communications
This year we have tried communicating more through social media including Facebook and Twitter rather than sending out a constant stream of emails.  The blog has had regular match reports for the majority of teams as well as publishing all the key messages including that weeks fixtures and training details.  We have continued using teamer for arranging training and games (for those of you with smart phones there is a free app which simplifies responding further).  All of this has reduced the volume of emails. How have you found this? What have you found useful or enjoyed and is there anything you would like to see more or less of?  

Sunday 15th April
There is a single header game at the High School starting at 20:00 (Devils vs Brighton Teela) can anyone help out lining, scoring etc?  We will have social games between 18:00 and 20:00 a teamer will follow shortly. 

Beach League
We have been talking about starting a beach league at the Worthing Sand courts on aWednesday evening 18:30-20:30.  The format would be mixed teams of three. For this to take off it would require 7-12 teams can you let me know if you would be interested in taking part?  Cost would be around £2.5 - £3.5 per week per person depending on the number of entries.  This will be an open league with hopefully entries from all the local clubs, but as we are the biggest and most local I expect that the bulk of the teams would have a Worthing player in it! 

Club Kit
If anyone would like one of the Club hoodies can you let me know what size you want and if you would like your team and/or nickname/name on it those details too.  The hoodies are about £15 and there is a small additional cost for printing your name.

Competitions dates
Sussex Cup 15th June 
This is a one day tournament that is free to enter for teams registered with the Sussex League.  Teamers will go out nearer the time but save the date!

SEVA
For the top two teams in the Ladies and Men's 1 divisions.  Devils can you save the date and hopefully Vipers will be representing Sussex again this year.  Andy Crockett try not to book a holiday on the 31st May...Just saying!31st May Men1st June Ladies

Doubles and Triples
This is a fun competition run by the club which should hopefully help towards keeping the cost of our monthly fees down and give you an enjoyable day or two's volleyball.  Use the facebook group page or spread the word about if you are looking for a team mate!  If you need a hard copy form I have a few, so catch me at training.

Two days and two games for Devils!

Devils played two local league games in the space of two days Crawley Redstars on Sunday and Dolphins2 on Monday. 

First up at home were Crawley, with only Gemma, Paula and Robyn missing.  The starting six were Mel setting, Sintija opposite, Brinee and Agata through the middle and Chantelle and Amy through the outside. It was a slow start from Devils with the teams trading points until Mel stepped up to serve, with solid serving and a strong front court line up Devils pulled ahead.  Once they had the lead at 15-12 they never looked like giving it up slowly clawing a 6 point lead to win 25-19.  Chantelle through the set was stretched back court covering the deep corners and only through some impressive dives reached a couple of the hits, which received cheers from the crowd and delighted the bench who scored her 9.8, 9.6 and 10.00. 

Em and Trees stayed on the bench for the second set and the team started much stronger quickly establishing a 15-8 lead with Chantelle serving well and Brinee and Amy looking menacing at the net.  A big hit from Sintija closed out the set with a final score of 25-17.


In the third set Em came on to ensure that we didn't drop that classic third set.  Unfortunately she hadn't read the script and Devils lost 25-21 when they got stuck on one rotation for 7 points.  Agata's traditional "Av' it" moment in each game rescued a point, but even with a late surge from Devils, Crawley kept their heads and closed out the set.

In the fourth set the Devils came out with the same team that started the second set and were looking to close out the game quickly working hard to keep the ball alive.  Capitan Sintija was in feisty spirits passing and then swing hitting and cheering the Devils on to greater levels of effort.  The team met the challenge and won 25-8.

MVP went to Captain Sintija who had a great game leading the team and hitting well.

Monday evening Devils travelled to Dolpins2 missing Trees, Em, Paula and Gemma.  Robyn was back after going up to Kettering to coach the under 16 Ashcombe girls in the National Cup.  Sintija lost the toss (again) but leading by example forced the girls to warm up properly, to a chorus of moans and the rustle of crisp packets being put away.

Devils started the same as the Crawley game, but with Robyn setting.  The team begin well with consistent serves and first balls in, allowing Robyn to spread the ball and attack from all positions.  This in turn meant Devils sided out first time in nearly every rotation.  Sabrina dominated the net while Amy worked hard covering back court showing Chantelle how you should dive for a ball.  There were a couple of simple serving errors, but apart from that it was a really positive first set.  The coach even had to change his standard first time out team talk.

For the second set Mel came on for Robyn, but the rest of the team stayed the same and everyone upped their game cutting out the serve errors.  Agata set the target of serving for six consecutive points and Brinee feeling that her title as serving king pin was on the line then went on to double it and serve for twelve points with numerous aces through a mix of power serves and sneaky short serves keeping Dolphins guessing.  As a reward she came off for Robyn once she had finished serving,  Robyn though failed to touch the ball for the rest of the game!  The highlight of the set was Agata pulling out another of her Ronaldo-esq kicks to win a point, admittedly she had served and been a smidge slow getting in to cover the block, it was still a great kick that had the scorers admitting they would have been proud to have pulled it off!

The same six started the third set and carried on with the same style of attacking volleyball.  Mel again set consistently and even got in on the action with a cheeky second ball over and a nice hit.  Sintija kept the teams energy high always supporting the other team members and enjoying her big hits.  Amy, Chantelle and Agata all had strong games communicating well, covering a lot of court and picking up points front court.  Brinee came up to serve at 14-10 knowing that she couldn't get another 12 serves in a row(with only 11 needed to get to 25), but still managed to finish the game 25-10.  With Robyn coming on for Chantelle front court and keen to get at least one more touch Mel set her for the last point of the game, which she put away for a clean winner.  

This means Worthing Devils retain the Sussex Volleyball Association Ladies Div 1 title this year, but could be challenged next year by a number of teams with both Brighton and East Grinstead giving them tough games in the last couple of weeks and Dolphins1 still to go.

That meant everyone could get home at a reasonable hour for training tomorrow night.....except Agata, Sintija and Dan might still be on the road somewhere, they were last seen heading towards Dartford about an hour later!

MVP went to Mel after a great performance setting up the attacks and defending the first ball well back court.  

Brighton Teela are the penultimate game of the season this Sunday 15th March, 20:00 at the High School. Supports as always welcome!

Vipers Win Against Crawley

Vipers travelled to Crawley to play a scratch team and just did enough when it mattered in each set to win 3-0. Difficult to pick a player of the match as everyone was worse than average so will mention both officials who played blinders.

Emma stepped in to help out as second ref and as usual picked up lots of rotation faults with Crawley and took no crap from anyone! Simon was the special guest ref and maintained control throughout and must be in the running for the smartest ref of the year award (first time I can remember having a ref in a suit and tie).

Highlight of the game was probably the improved quality of timeout calls "just sayin"...........

Volleyball players aren't competitive!

With the sports hall out of action the club annual bowling social was on the cards.  The Devils with their Latvian not so secret weapon were keen to show the boys how it should be done.  Worryingly it was like a Sunday night the shouts of "yeeee haaa" and "that's the way I like it" were coming thick and fast from the middle lane.  With Gem, Chantelle and Em all supporting Sintija with strikes and spares.  While poor Richard was single handedly keeping the Jets/Vipers hybrid team in the running with this text book technique and pin point accuracy.  Joshy, Matt and Dom took a different more traditional Volleyball approach, if they don't all go down hit them harder and faster next time!  In the far corner Mickey was leading his mixed barbarian team made up of the best of the best........and Robyn!  Sintija had the highest score of the first game with a very nice 143.  The boys through a good team average managed to just hold out for victory by the slimiest of margins! 

In the second set Dan and Sintija scrapped pin for pin in a competitive battle that amused the crowd, while Mickey (for a change) quietly build an insurmountable score of 179!  Again the boys came first, the girls second and even with the highest score of the night Mickey's team came last....again!  Dom found success with the two handed between the legs throw and Gemma was on fire pulling out strikes and spares for fun while Agata was consistent getting 9's and spares with the odd strike thrown in with her unusual bowling style! 
After all the banter, shouting and shenanigans we all trooped off to the Mahaan for a well earnt curry and pint of Cobra or pineapple juice for Trees!

Micky's mixed Team

The Devils (minus Robyn :( )

Jets/Vipers (Winners!)

The Devils

Sintija Bowling from behind

Sintija Bowling from the front

Demons Win One and Lose One

The Demons travelled away to East Grinstead without a full squad and with Katie ready for her debut. Debbie played libero to protect her injured wrist with Cleo, Sophie, Aly, Sandrine, Lorna and Katie making up the rest of the team.

The team won the game with comparative ease with great all round performances from all. Great setting from Cleo, good court coverage and encouragement from Debbie, good football skills from Sophie, and good hitting from Aly, Lorna and Sandrine. Katie had a great first senior game picking up MVP for some awesome hitting.

Next game was against Eastbourne and despite Sarah returning to the team and a strong debut for Rita they lost 3-1. Close sets and the odd lapse of concentration from the Demons combined with a good performance from Eastbourne meant they were unable to make it two back to back wins. Cleo picked up MVP and it was a good all round performance that bodes well for the remaining fixtures.

Photo from the game against East Grinstead and hopefully Debbie will be able to provide more interesting reports for the remaining games!

Monster Match between Devils and Adora

Following the strong game against East Grinstead last week Worthing Devils travelled to the only remaining team in the league to have only dropped two games all season and with a couple of new players Brighton were a team on form.

Devils had a full team except for Gemma who was bringing a bit of (much needed) glamour to the coaching team.  The starting six were Mel, Sintija, Agata, Em, Trees and Chantelle.  Worthing started slowly with Brighton coming off better in the early exchanges building a 10-5 lead, Worthing looking tense and were making a number of simple errors.  It was only with Mel serving supported by a strong front court that we started to make a dent on the lead clawing back 9 points and taking us into the lead for the first time at 23-19.  Trees took her que to close out the set 25 - 21 and Devils were one up away from home without playing their prettiest volleyball!

The second set started with the same team and again started very slowly with Brighton having the better start.  It took Mel pulling out a wonder dive to keep the game alive at 18-24 down to inspire the team to make a late push to pull it back to 21-25, but they couldn't quite finish the set.  With impressive blocking from both sides the back court had to work hard to pick up loose balls and tips over the block. Brinee had a good rotation putting up a couple of massive blocks but didn't really have an opportunity to unleash her power hits.

A couple of changes were made for the third set with Sabrina coming on for Agata and Robyn for Mel.  For the first time the team started passing more confidently helping to build strong attacks which meant our hitters were getting better balls in and boy did they take advantage of it!  The halls ceiling and walls took a peppering as Brighton struggled to contain our power hits and strong serving.  Robyn setting cleverly used Trees and Chantelle back court to minimise the big Brighton block in key rotations and Sintija was everywhere diving across the court to pick up balls and raining down the hits front court.  The Devils heads were up and they were enjoying themselves, as were the crowd who were cheering them on enthusiastically from the sides!  From 4-8 up they quickly added to their lead and soon had a 9 point gap through a combination of strong serving by Sabrina and Chantelle and fantastic hitting by Trees, Sintija and Em.  The set ended 25-13 and the team were keen to get back on the court for the next set!.

After such a strong set the same team came out to finish the game, hopefully in the same style.  Brighton fought back though and stopped Devils getting the same head of momentum in this set.  With both teams playing aggressive attacking volleyball and with strong blocking on both sides Worthing couldn't build a big lead and had to settle for a keeping a two point lead throughout the game until Trees stepped up at the end to win the final four points to get us over the line 25-19 winners - phew!

Brinee claimed another MVP with a rare performance through the middle - anyone would think that's her usual position!


The Devils are back in action at home next Sunday against Crawley.