Angel's opening game of the season was always going to be a challenge trying to gel six players and get the rotations right after just a few hours of training is an impossible task, added to that they were playing the winners of the league - Devils (and they certainly didn't want to lose to a team from their own club!)
Angels look to have lost Cleo, so Sandrine stepped into set with Sylwia opposite, Em and Katie through the outside and Aly and Tanya middle.
The Devils were at full strength except for Em, with the pleasant surprise of Gemma making it down for the game! The coach showed no mercy and threw her straight into the game, meaning the Farley's kept each other company on the bench.
The opening points were tit-for-tat with both teams starting strongly and the Devils caught a bit on the back foot from the fight from the Angels! Mark would have been pleased as both teams served well with no errors. It wasn't until 7-7 when the Devils started to open up a points gap, with the consistent strong hits dragging Angels all over the court. Although Tanya did a terrific job covering the lines the combined hitting through 2 and 4 slowly put Devils in front. Emma enjoyed being part of the serve receive for a change passing in good balls for Sandrine to set, which Katie, Sylwia and Aly took advantage of. Angels finished strong and Katie even cracked a smile (rare for any Lay) after a couple of power hits from four! Army's consistent hitting got Devils out of tricky situations a couple of times following shanks from hits by Sylwia and Aly.
The second set saw Brinee come on through the outside for Amy. Strong runs of serve early in the set by Chantelle and Agi gave the Devils a big 10 point gap, but a good time out from the Angels coach saw them settle and refocus coming back with good front court play from Sylwia, Tanya and Katie. Sintija and Mel started to link up well and a better first ball in meant they could run a cross over successfully - Training paying off! Brinee enjoyed playing through four and put some big hits over and Agi for the second game in a row was dominant front court, but they didn't have it all there own way and there were numerous points when they had to scrabble the ball back following hits from Tanya and Katie. They even forced the first pancake of the year from Amy (on for Chantelle) whoop whoop!
Trees came on for Gemma in the final set and Amy was back on for Brinee. Angels came out all guns blazing in the third set determined not to give away early strings of points on serve receive and they didn't, keeping the game very close until Trees stepped up to serve five points in a row, mainly due to communication issues as the first ball in was generally pretty good and with the height in the Angels they will challenge a lot of teams. It was good to see Chantelle run a 'b' run on for the last point of the game! The final score was 25-16, 25-14, 25-14.
If Angels play like that every week we will see some upsets and possibly a challenger to Mickey for 'most passionate coach!'
Well played Sintija a well deserved MVP it was great to see you applying the training in a game and thanks for bringing the 'Mafia' It was a tough call for Angels MVP everyone played so well with both Tanya, Sylwia and Katie all nominated by various members of Devils! In the end Tanya was chosen - congratulations!
