Round 1 of Volleyball Englands’ U16G Grand Prix.

Venue: Madely High School, Newcastle Road, Madely, Newcastle-under Lyme. CW3 9JJ. 

Team: Liv Stewart (capt), Gabi Liu, Natsuhi Yamamoto, Victoria Adesina, Ella Benjamin, Piruthya Sivakumar, Julia Placzek, Ola Rys, Oliwia Gardaseiwicz, Iona West, Molly Dundas.

Results

v Urmston A - lost 0-2, 17-25, 3-25

v Newcastle Staffs A - lost 0-2, 21-25, 18-25

v Newcastle Staffs B - won 2-0, 25-21, 25-16

v Stockport - won 2-0, 25-13, 25-15

Final results table

A really pleasing performance and a good start in this VE National T1 competition. Urmston Grammar and ‘Castle A will expect to reach the last 8 competition but for our Wirral A team with several young and inexperienced players this is a  good first round result. Urmston and ‘Castle A will be promoted to a higher level by the next round on December 15th and that should give Wirral a good chance to top the pool the next time round.

Match 1 - We began well against the strong Urmston team, covering the court and defending well and causing them some problems with our block and ability to recycle the ball. We held on until the second part of the set when they were able to use their more powerful attack to pull away. After doing well to pick up 17 points in the first set we collapsed under a barrage of strong serves in the second.

Match 2 - The one disappointment of the day. It was close, we played some nice volleyball and were always in with a chance of winning but let them get away to take the first and left it toolate to get a charge going in set 2.

Matches 3&4 - Wirral were clearly the better team in both these matches. We served better, covered the court better, blocked better, and produced some winning attack with Natsuhi finding her middle and back court hitters with encouraging regularity. 

What do you do between matches at a tournament? Take your shoes off, eat and do your homework

Things to build on 

- really good work in the block, we were the only team able to mount a two-man block at 4, 3 and 2, better than even Urmston could manage

- good back court work from our libero players regularly getting a consistent  pass in to the setter

- back-court attack from middle and right-side found good angles and scored well

- Victoria discovering she could get on top of the ball and winners from the middle, and getting an appetite for it

- our core players (Olivia, Gabby, and Natsuhi) give shape and stability to the team and really help the youger players and newcomers to settle in and make their own contribution

- strong vocal support and engagement from the bench (and spectators) was a feature of the competition and visibly strengthened the team on-court.