MVLWD1 match. Wirral A v Royals (W) 

Venue: Woodchurch HS. Sunday May 5, start 11:00

Last game of the season for Wirral A.

Team: Katie Leppington (capt), Eisha Chahal, Helena Hinch, Liv Stewart, Abi Larway, Lily Prosser, Imi Newall, Analie Lipanski

Result: Lost 1-3, 20-25, 25-20, 19-25, 9-25

A really interesting game to wrap up the season. Our girls put on a good display showcasing all the system and teamwork development we’ve been working on in training but were beaten finally by experience, persistence and very strong serving from Royals.

Royals stole the first set after our girls played them off the court with nice movement, great work from Eisha both covering and setting, and, beginning to show the range and quality of attack we’ve been working on, we moved to deserved 19-16 lead only to succumb to strong serving from Royals in the later part of the set. 

The second set was extraordinary, 10-3 up showing some brilliant team play, 13-20 down after strong serving from Royals and a series of attacking errors from our team, then an amazing recovery as Imi kept her head to serve out the match and Royals fell apart with error after error.

The third set was patchy, some good play from our girls, some great rallies, but Royals experience carried them through as we fell away towards the end of the set, and the fourth was a disaster. Under pressure from strong serving from Royals uncertainty set in and we were 18-1 down in the blink of an eye with almost all Royals points coming from serve-receive errors. There was a small late rally but the damage was done and Royals ran out easy winners.

Our team is developing well and looking ready for VE T1U18s next season but we lack a consistant cutting edge and, a recurring theme, service recieve needs work.

Finally a big thank you to Peter Hughes, one of Wirral girls biggest supporters this year. We are lucky to have him and to have been able to depend on his consistent, reliable, helpful and fair refereeing throughout the season.

The outdoor summer season starts on Thursday May 16th. Come and have some fun in the sun..