The last National League weekend for 2014 and for a change Worthing were at home against Devon and Reading. Unfortunately the Devon game was cancelled as they had a number of players at South West training.
Mel was missing, lapping up the sun shine in Thailand and with the trio of pregnant/new mums out we were down to Cait and Brinee through the middle, Chantelle and Trees outside and Sintija and Paulina opposite and setter. The good new was Tracy's shoulder was on the mend and she was able to play giving us options and cover and we had a great crowd making plenty of noise...would you expect anything else with Latvians, Craig and Em all in the mix!
The first set started well with the team's trading points and for a change Worthing started brightly with Cait making a big stuff block and Trees mixing dumps into the hole and a couple of big hits. Although the cover started a little slow it picked up as the set went on and the energy was high on court with Paulina mixing the sets well, utilising all the options and linking with Brinee to run a quick attack through the middle. Strong serving from Brinee at 9-9 gave Worthing a lead of 5 points and with good balls in and strong attacks Worthing sided out first time consecutively 5 times to go 21-15 up. A lapse in concentration let Reading back into the game and they were serving at 22-24 when they served into the net following a time out to give Worthing the lead.
Set two started with the same 6 starting for Worthing. Reading started strong with a good serve from their number 8 causing issues with the experienced Worthing serve receive. A change in receive personnel and a time out didn't help but a cheeky second ball over from Paulina disrupted Readings rhythm and although it was scrambled back it was a free ball and Sintija put a screamer down the line that Reading couldn't touch, bringing the score to 3-7. Reading were playing well hitting the line through opposite and their libero was picking up hits Worthing were celebrating taking them to 13-7. Tree's consistent serving picked up 6 points to bring Worthing back into the game, helped by a strong front court of Brinee, Sintija and Chantelle to take it to 14-12. Points were again traded until at 19-21 up Chantelle hot two clean winners down the line to give Worthing the momentum to finish 25-19!
In the third set Tracy came on for Paulina making her debut for Worthing. A good start gave Worthing a 4-2 lead but again got stuck on a service rotation and letting Reading go 4-8 up and heads dropped. Reading stepped up their game hitting and serving well stray first balls and a lack of communication meant Tracy was being dragged all over the court and at 9-20 it was looking very flat on court. A late rally inspired by Tracy getting a clean second all over into the hole and setting intelligently saw Worthing get 9 points to Readings 5 and go into the fourth set keen to finish the game.
The set started well with Tracy finding Chantelle and Sintija and getting a nice run of points. The number 7 serve from Reading again caused problems, earning 8points and with the first ball again deteriorating Paulina came on to set at 6-11. A spirited fight back saw Worthing closing the gap all the time and got to 18-18 when again the number 7 picked up 4 points and while every point was chased down the set finished 23-25.
Set 5 this years speciality and Worthing were keen to start well with lots of noise from the crowd and everyone wanting to get on court and finish strong. Unfortunately so were Reading and with the number 7 serving well and 10 hitting line through opposite reading were 4-0 up a time out broke that serve but Reading had the momentum and were 8-2 up at the change of ends. When they picked up a yellow for time wasting as they stopped for drinks. Worthing kept scrapping for points and again Cait pulled off a stuff block though middle but at 14-9 things were not looking good! Happily Chantelle was serving who has saved the team a number of times keeping her head under pressure and brought us back to 14-13 when Reading asked for a time out having already had two that set. A red card gave Worthing a point and it was now a battle of wills after two hours of volleyball who would break first? Reading came straight back with a big hit but served out, this happened three times 17-17 but Worthing couldn't capitalise on the mistakes. 18-17 to Reading and it looked all over a big hit between the block Sintija couldn't make it and Chantelle missed it! But it landed on her foot! Sintija dived to retrieve the ball bashing her head and seeing stars but got it up and the ball was put away to level the scores again! Paulina set out to Trees at 2 who killed it and needing one point the ball this time went to Brinee who did the same! 21-19 and another five setter lasting over 2 hours!
MVP Chantelle, but everyone played out of their skins! Best post match tea yet topped off by an amazing cake!
A big thank you to the supporters and even more so to Kish, Matt and Alessandra for officiating!
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