Round 2 of Volleyball Englands’ U18G Grand Prix.

Date 10/11/2024. Venue Woodchurch High School

Team: Katie Leppington (cap), Eisha Chahal, Helena Hinch, Abi Larway, Immi Newall, Lily Prosser, Gaby Liu, Liv Stewart, Emily Foster

Results:

Wirral U18 beat Milton Keynes City A by 2 sets to 1, 21-25, 25-22, 15-11

Wirral U18 beat Urmston C by 2 sets to 0, 25-18, 25-19

Wirral U18 beat Nuneaton by 2 sets to 1, 21-25, 25-17, 17-15

As winners of the Bronze Pool we qualify for promotion to the Silver Pool in round 3 on December 8th.

This was no easy victory, our girls had to overcome two very different challenges. MK City A had two powerful hitters, one in the middle and one on the wing and, for most of the match, if their setter got a good ball the hitters would put down a winner. Their hitters won them the first set. Our challenge then was to keep the ball away from the setter and tighten our blocking. Gabby came to the rescue with long runs of strong serves either scoring points or making MK A scramble to return the ball and by set 3 our blockers began to make their own contribution, winning some vital points and frustrating the MK A hitters into errors.

The final match vs Nuneaton was even more nail-biting. They had a solid defence, a strong block, and one girl who could push a volley into the back corners from anywhere on the court. This put pressure in our deep cover and gave Nuneaton a big lead in the first set. Gabby's serve again gave us hope but the lead was too big and the set was gone. Liv got us off to a great start with an 8-0 lead on her serve in set 2 but this still left us the problem of how to work around the big block. More strong serving and some clever touches saw us through to a 25-17 win. The third set was a real nail-biter and kept the crowd loud and on the edge of their seats. We turned around 8-7 up, pushed on to 14-11, Nuneaton levelled the score then went up to 15-14, but our girls kept their nerve, kept fighting and eventually took the set 17-15.

A great competition and one to be proud to win. Our serving was the difference, not on this occasion Abi and Immi causing the opposition to struggle but Gabby and Liv. The other great strength was in our teamwork, the opposition had some strong players but our girls held on, never gave up, fought for every point and deserved their win.

Round 3 of the U18 girls Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, December 8th. Wirral have gained promotion to Silver pool C where our opponents will be Manchester Marvels, Sheffield, and Richmond C. Volleyball England will send out the details and venue over the next week or so. We won’t be at home for Round 3, Woodchurch has another event booked in that weekend.