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!
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.
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!
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