MVLWD2 match.

Wirral A v Knutsford Valkyries

Venue: Woodchurch

Date Sunday 24th March

Team: Lily Hogan(cap), Olivia Stewart, Gaby Liu, Imi Newall, Natsui Yamamoto, Piruthya Sivakumar, Emily Foster, Analie Lipanski

Result: won 3-1, 22-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16

A win at last. Good results in age group competitions have not been replicated in the Merseyside Women’s League this year so a win is something of an event and long overdue. It was the reward for a steady, rather than spectacular performance. Our girls were by some way the stronger group of players and created most of the attack but Knutsford came in on the back of some good results in MVL and cleaarly expected to win. That expectation gave them the confidence to come back to win the first set after trailing throughout but our girls were able to move into an 18-9  lead at the start of set 2 on the back of some strong reliable serving. Knutsford fought but couldn’t haul back the deficit. Set 3 was tight in the early stages but our team showed some mettle to pull away in the closing points and were able to continue the momentum into set 4 for a convincing win. 

Lily led the line well (even from an unfamiliar middle position) with reliable serving, a few nice winners and some good work on the net. Piruthya had an unbelievable debut hitting a winner every time she got the ball (still can’t work out how she did it) and serving well, and Analie as libero (but playing at 6) made a good contribution from the back and helped to steady the ship when things got a bit rocky. Gaby was again the stand-out player even though her serving didn’t dominate as much as usual and she got blocked out a few times her overall contribution in cover and a wide range of attack was one of the main differences between the teams.

Two more games before Easter, lets see if we can build a winning run.