Sunday 18 January 2015

Angels play Teela

Angels travelled away to play Teela without Tanya and Sylwia so were pleased to welcome Joey and Trees to help us out.

A slow start in the first set as everyone got used to playing with each other, but a late rally saw them narrowly lose to 23 points. Great court coverage from Joey, an improving first pass and good serving saw the Angels remain competitive in a close second set that went to their experienced opponents.

Despite a run of losses against strong opposition the Angels continue to play with great team spirit, but Teela ran out 3-0 winners. Some great blocking and finding the corners with her hits saw Aly pick up MVP and the afternoon ended with cakes from Katie! Four games in two weeks and the Angels are looking forward to a break and a chance to regroup before their next game away to East Grinstead on the 2nd of Feb.

To see how the Angels are improving take a look at the latest video highlights from their match against Eastbourne http://youtu.be/4BE0GeA6PjQ

Thursday 15 January 2015

Angels out score Eastbourne, but lose 3-1

Angels headed to Eastbourne on a stormy night on the back of two tough games against Dolphins hoping to turn good performances in to a win.

The first set was tight with the Angels building an early lead only to let it slip when things got close at the business end of the set. The second set followed a similar format despite the Angels still not hitting their best form and again they lost by a couple of points. The third set started and all of a sudden the Angels lifted their performance with improved calling, better serving and lots more noise. The best set of the season so far saw them take it 25-10. Eastbourne responded well in the fourth set and again, with things tight, the Angels went quiet and started to lose focus resulting in a 3-1 loss. Over the four sets the Angels scored more points and just need to forget the score and play the same great volleyball through out the set and the wins will start to come.

Katie secured her second MVP in a row, but there were more than a few other strong candidates.




Sunday 11 January 2015

Dolphins against Angels Part2

The same Angels team faced Dolphins for the second time in a week, but this time played much better and nearly took a set.

Having played earlier in the week and being helped out by Sandrine again they started well with more teamwork from the start. The first set ended 16-25 and the Angels carried their improved confidence in to the second set. Good court coverage and an improved first pass enabled Sandrine to spread the set and all of a sudden Dolphins were under pressure. They were not helped be the odd rotation errors, but some great rallies and team spirit could not beat a more experienced Dolphins team and a close set ended 24-26.

Another good team performance in the third was not enough to prevent Dolphins winning the set 15-25.

Better discipline, an improved first pass, great teamwork, strong blocking and great hitting from an improving Angels team resulted in a very good performance which they now need to repeat on Wednesday when the are away to Eastbourne.

Katie picked up MVP.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Angels play Dolphins1

The Angels started the new year with a tough away fixture against Dolphins1 without the steadying on court influence of Emma who moved to the sidelines in a coaching role.

The Angels struggled to get going in the first set as the Dolphins built up a big lead. Once they started to relax, get a good pass in to the setter and put Dolphins under some kind of pressure the points started to come and they managed to score 16 points.

The second set again started very poorly, but things did not improve and the set was lost with very little fight.

In the third set things improved and with much better court coverage, calling and improved team work they reached 15 points before the much more experienced Dolphins closed out a 3-0 victory.

A chance to improve things and carry forward some momentum on Sunday when they host Dolphins again at the High school.

MVP went to Sylwia in her new team shirt!



Saturday 3 January 2015

New year - Same old Worthing....mammoth 5 setter

It was a disjointed warm up due to Dulwich not being there.  Worthing warmed up as usual not knowing to expect them imminently or if they wouldn't be there at all. Happily they arrived and while all the players were there and on court for the match start time as they weren't in kit and warmed up properly the officials agreed to start the match 20 mins later.  The Worthing team was pretty much the same team that played Dulwich away on the first game of the season (Em, Brinee, Chantelle, Trees, Sintija, Mel and Tracy) with Em and bump sitting this one out and Gem stepping in (thanks Gem and hope Todd didn't miss his feed!) and Tracy being available to play this time rather than being bench personnel. 

Once the match started Worthing came out strong not wanting to give Dulwich a two set lead like last time! Brinee had her serving shoes on or Asic Gel Sensi 5's, as they are otherwise known!  Serving 8 points, mixing her classic power float with a sneaky short to keep the opposition on their toes.  This took Worthing to 11-3 and they never looked liked losing from here.  Gemma got in on the serving action with a nice run of 6 points.  The consistent strong serving from Worthing stopped the middle being opened up by Dulwich and with good first balls in both Mel and Tracy had fun picking their sets and seeing the power hits picking up points. The set finished 25-16.




The second set start the same way, but this time Dulwich rallied early and levelled the scores 6-6 before a spell of strong serving in conjunction with a wobble with Worthing's serve receive saw 6 points dropped in one serve receive 8-16 Dulwich. Chantelle's serving backed by a strong front court of the Farley's gave Worthing a glimmer of hope and when Brinee stuffed blocked a massive hit at 11-16 you could see the spring in Worthing's step was back.  Again the new serving trainers continued to work their magic and Brinee got Worthing 4 points and a little closer 15-17.  Then the cripple stepped up to serve a combination of good serves, and great cover back court from Trees with power hits from Brinee front court and Chantelle mixing clever cuts with rolls into the corner meant that Worthing levelled the scores and then pushed on to take a marginal lead 23-21.  The calm head of Sintija saw the set out with a strong serve into the corner and a shank into the wall meant Worthing won 25-23.

In the third set the teams traded points with either team getting more than two points ahead of the other, both teams stepped up their game and the standard of hitting and cover back court lead to some great rallies.  At 16-18 Dulwich's setter served and with a strong front court they made the points they needed, while Brinee made a great pick up back court covering the tip to four the power hit that followed to five got them the point and the next couple taking Tuskers to 22-16 and in the end the set 25-19.

A strong start from Dulwich/a poor start from Worthing in the fourth again saw the basic communication lapse and the whole team looked nervous on court and not at all like the un-defeated leaders and champions of the five setter that they are!!  For periods they played well with Trees using the angles well and Brinee dominating the net.  Sintija as always made so much noise my throat was sore in sympathy, as well as picking off some big points at stages of the game. Chantelle and Gemma quietly got on with business, covering and blocking well and both Tracy and Mel used the pass in wisely with Tracy picking up points with a cheeky second ball over but in the end Dulwich earnt the set 25-15.

So we entered Worthing's 2014-15 trademark, the lottery of the fifth set!  Dulwich again started well and before Worthing got going it was 2-6 to Dulwich.  At 7-10 down Sintija fires in an ace and on her second serve while the number 2 player tried to avoid it, the ball dipped and caught her full in the face... happily she bounced straight back and was good to carry on! So was Sintija and the next ball went to the same area and brought the score to 11-11 and then it was 13-13! Dulwich won the point and served for the game and a text book pass and set from Brinee and Mel meant all the hard work was done and Trees didn't miss her line putting away a screamer.  Strangely enough the next two sets went her way and so did the final two points! 16-14 Worthing! 

A great result for the first game of the new year and especially as there hasn't been any training for a month or so! A tough first game in a while for Gemma and also for Tracy who's slowly getting back her match fittness after being out for most of the season. It was also good to see Brinee working so hard back court and getting consistent good balls in to the setter and covering the tip to 4!  A massive thank you to the supporters, I don't think we would have got through the fifth set as winners with out you! It was great to see a few of the EG crew as well as Dom, Robyn (their mum) and Katy, along with the regular Latvian's, Farley's and Chantelle's mum and Craig the ever present!

Also a special thanks to Kish, Em, Kathy, Amelia, Nigel and Elise for officiating! 

Devon up next in a couple of weeks!!