Cambridge & ARU 2:3 Tendring Men

18/25, 25/21, 24/26, 25/17, 19/21

Report by Bastien Chabbe-Ferret

It is the end of a historic weekend for Tendring volleyball club men’s team as they secure a return in the NVL first division just one year after leaving it. An impressive 15 and 0 record allowed them to bring the Division 2 South title home with three games still to go.

The weekend started on Saturday afternoon with a snowy trip to Cambridge Anglia Ruskin that was promising to be a great battle as the first game between the two teams ended up with a convincing but very tight win in 3 for Tendring (25/14, 28/26, 28/26). However for this second game, usual starting outside hitter Styan was missing on Tendring’s side and coach Chabé-Ferret had to put his jersey on to sub in for him. It turned out to be for the better as Tendring snatched the victory and coach Chabé-Ferret celebrated his first MVP nomination of the season.

The first set replicated closely that of the first match with Cambridge’s passer Apostolos Averkiadis being put under a constant service pressure by Tendring leaving very few options to setter Gianni Antichi. Tendring’s middles Jacob Jones and Alex Porter were put in excellent positions by Californian setter Connor Bui and Tendring took the first set 25-18.

In the second set, Tendrings’ serves become a bit more predictable, Averkiadis comes back into the game and displays excellent offensive skills now distributed by Enrico Picone, the other transalpine setter in Cambridge’s roster, who entered alongside outside hitter Perz, instead of team captain Kaminski. The scoreboard remains tight all along but a good final service run by Pablo Hernandez sealed it for Cambridge who takes the second set 25-21.

In the third, Cambridge followed on from the second set dynamics to lead 16-9 at the second technical timeout, after winning a number of highly disputed rallies marked by impressive saves from liberos on both sides of the net, Rauf Saatcioglu for Cambridge and Rees Warren for Tendring. At this point, Andre Kaprol from Tendring, who took over the coaching for the occasion, found the words that stirred up the revolt amongst his players. Tendring started an amazing comeback and a few great saves by Tendring’s setter Connor Bui put Cambridge’s offence under pressure. Outside hitter Bartosz Perz finally hit into the net to make 26-24 in favour of Tendring.

The fourth started very much like the third with Cambridge leading early on. A very good defensive organisation and fatigue kicking in resulted in Tendring making more offensive mistakes. The gap extended to 16-6 at the 2nd technical timeout. Morawski and Dove tried their best to close the gap to come back to 15-20 but it was too late and Cambridge, led by their very inspired setter Enrico Picone, pushed Tendring to a tie breaker on a 25-17 mark.

Cambridge was once again up for a good start in the 5th and the teams switched sides on a 8-4 mark in favour of Cambridge. Tendring forced its way back with malicious tip shots by Chabé-Ferret and fierce kills by Morawski. However Cambridge responded with great hits by Pablo Hernandez and when Averkiadis roofed Dove 1 on 1 to make 13-11, it looked like Tendring would finally have to suffer its first defeat of the season. At 14-13 for Cambridge on Tendring’s serve, Averkiadis gets no less than 4 chances to kill and finish the game but each time he is either blocked or defended. Enrico Picone then decides to dump the ball on the second touch, without any luck. He finally decides to set in the middle for Goetzke who hits outside the court by a few inches.

Another successful spike by Chabé-Ferret that gave match point to Tendring and the pressure has changed sides. Goetzke decides to make up for his previous mistake and scores with a clever tip at the end of a rally to maintain parity. Morawski and Hernandez are now in the front row and rival with a succession of kills… and a few tiny mistakes that are tough on everyone’s nerves. But Tendring came out mentally stronger: an excellent service by Bui puts Cambridge’s pass under pressure, the ball flies over the net a few times before Morawski finally puts the game to an end on a kill block with the tip of his pinky against middle-blocker Janik.

What an amazing volleyball game just took place, both teams can be proud of their performance. There is no doubt that Cambridge will be a strong contender for 2nd place in the league. Tendring instead is just a tiny step away from securing the championship with the reception of the modest team of Oxford students on Sunday. The match’s intensity is of no comparison with that of the day before. Tendring is far from playing its best volleyball but does enough to secure a victory in straight sets and the championship win.

Cambridge 2 - 3 Tendring (18/25, 25/21, 24/26, 25/17, 19/21) Tendring 3 - 0 Oxford (25/19, 25/16, 25/18)