A squad of nine went to Coventry today to take on Wombourne, Wapping Wildcats, and London Lynx over in Coventry. A late change in schedule as a result of late trains coming up from London meant that after refereeing a game, we took on Wombourne first, right after they’d come off of a 3 set game. As expected, they made a stronger start, with a run of serves pinning us back, with Wombourne taking advantage of our rocky start and winning all of the first 6 points, and forcing me into an early timeout. However, it was all upwards from there as outsides Howard and Jake varied their attacks superbly, as well as Maks playing well through opposite and won us some early points, and serving had some much needed consistency. After forcing them into a couple of timeouts we then got the pass accurate enough to access our middles and Rory found Mackie and Niam well. We made far less mistakes over the course of the set, and came out deservedly on top taking a 1-0 lead. 

The second set saw Dhilan enter as oppo but we once again gave them a pretty easy head start, this time a 5-0 advantage. This time, however we couldn’t recover it as well as we did, as we outplayed them in spells but some of their stronger players coming on meant that they were winning points rather than forcing our errors, and that made their lead unassailable, as they kept their nose ahead right until the end winning that one by 7. That’s without the 5 bonus points that they should have got for hitting Jake in the head. 

That meant a deciding set, and we reverted to the side that won the first. Some great back court work, committing for every ball early on meant that the set started neck a neck, with Wombourne taking a small lead into the end swap. A couple of strong serves extended their lead before we got right back into it, but it just wasn’t quite enough as they came out with a 15-11 win. Tough one to take, but a strong performance and so much to be proud of. 

We had to pick ourselves up right away though, as we took on the newly arrived Wildcats side. They were a big team, capable of some big kills, but it was our mistakes that cost us the first set. Serving became inconsistent, and a few solid serves hit our pass for 6, meaning our hitters couldn’t quite find their rhythms. Heads began to drop with the score feeling impossible to catch, and changes were made but it wasn’t quite enough Safe to say the opener was disappointing, and the score line reflected that. 

There was certainly improvement in the second, however and we matched the eventual pool winners point for point for at least the first half, finally getting off to a good start in a set. We couldn’t quite get a solid run of serves together, and they did, making the difference in that one. A lot of positive from that second set with a big improvement in the second set though, with credit to Jayden and the rest of the back court who had adapted well to a different system, with the outsides stepping up well to the 5 role and Jayden as Libero doing brilliantly in 6. 

The final game was against London Lynx, who had just pushed Wildcats to a 3rd set, as well as earlier coming out on top versus Wombourne, so we knew another tough game was ahead of us. Jake and Kingston started as outsides and both put in good performances, as we took an early, albeit small lead. Dhilan returned as oppo and served well, and Rory continued to gain consistency as setter, despite not having much experience playing there. However, Lynx had a lot of quality, as we knew and fought back, and didn’t give away much at all, using our block a couple of times and burying a few big kills. They took the first. 

The second saw a couple of changes, as Howard and Maks returned, as Jayden, Rory, Jake, Mackie and Niam continued their roles. We had a lot of fight in this one, knowing it could be our last, playing to keep our hope for a win today alive. A couple big kills from Mackie kept their middles guessing and swung some momentum our way, and Niam caused them just as many problems, scoring a couple himself. Our hard work just didn’t quite pay off though, with a late timeout not getting us back in it like I’d hoped, and we fell to a 6 point cushion. 

Overall, there was some seriously good stuff in there, and not getting in the win column today stung for the guys. The level that we hit deserved it without a doubt, but we went through phases where we didn’t hit those levels, and that was what ultimately cost us today. Having said that, was once again proud of the lads and proud of the fight they showed, even if it didn’t generate those results we hoped for. Big thanks to Rory for the reffing help, and Jake for coming along to help me. We’ll go again in early March, our last chance for the season.