MVLWD1 match.

Wirral A v Royals 

Venue: Jubilee Sports Bank, Jubilee Drive. L7 8SJ

Date Thursday, March 28

Start 20:00

Team: Helena Hinch (capt), Lucy Pitman, Abi Larway, Imi Newall, Eisha Chahal, Lily Prosser, Kaitlyn Ha, Emily Foster, Analie Lipanasky.

Result: lost 2-3, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22, 16-25, 13-15

If ever there was a match we should have won this was it - we seem to make a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Royals were so pleased with their win they were dancing around at the end as though they’d won the cup final.

The match...

Great start, Royals shocked by Abi’s service and we were 8-0 up before they managed to get the ball back, after that our girls played pretty well but failed to build enough attack to take the game away. To their credit Royals hung in, closing the gap and staying in touch. Too far behind to catch us in set one they plugged away to take set two, our girls fought back to win set three then fell asleep to concede the fourth. Now it’s down to the final set, Abi to serve looking to establish an early lead - first serve into the net and suddenly we were 5-0 down, a good fight back to turn round at 7-8, into the lead at 13-12, then capitulation on the last 3 points - no pass, bad pass, feeble push into the net and the match was gone. 

It was a close, exciting from start to finish, earned a lot of applause and support from the traveling parents and an it was entertaining match to watch. Our girls played some nice volleyball with strong serving, good winning hits from 3, 4 AND 2, and some great scrambllng from both sides, but we made too many errors, enough to keep Royals, who were clearly the weaker team, in the game and eventually concede the game to them. We have to learn to concentrate better, keep the pressure on and press home the advantage when we have it, and manage the game to see out wins rather than entertaining hard-fought losses.