Tendring Men 3 - 0 London Lynx
25:20, 25:15, 25:19
Report by Tomasz Morawski
Having secured the National League Men’s Division 2 title already, Tendring team approached their next home game vs a strong London Lynx team with less pressure, but with an equally strong desire to maintain their unbeaten run in the league. The competition for the second spot in Division 2 South is fierce and London Lynx is amongst the teams that could still claim it.
With everything to play for, the visitors arrived in Frinton-on-sea very motivated and determined to leave with 3 points. The Frinton fortress however proved yet again too strong for the visitors and the home Tendring team extended their unbeaten run to an impressive 16 wins by seeing London Lynx off in three straight sets.
The game has been preceded by an impressive display of attacking power displayed during the net warm up by the very athletic Lynx players. Each warm up hithiting harder than the previous one was a statement of intention to win and it could easily have shaken the confidence of Tendring team. The home team however remained unfazed and started the game focused and confident.
The first set expectedly started off with a couple of huge spikes by Lynx’s Ugnius Marganavicius and Benas Sileika. Tendring had to adjust their block-defence set up and after few spectacular blocks by Tendring’s Stuart Dove and Jacob Jones on the right side, London Lynx’s attacks became more erratic and many errors followed. Tendring team’s experience was showing also in the serve where well placed serves caused a lot of trouble to Lynx’s passing unit. Forced into out of system play Lynx’s attacking power diminished and Tendring capitalised on that running successful counter attack via middle (Jacob Jones, Bastien Chabe-Ferret) and wings (Andrew Styan, Tomasz Morawski), taking the first set 25:20.
Tendring started the second set strong and did not allow Lynx to find their game. Despite efforts by the Lynx setter Gediminas Grigas to utilize his attackers in the most efficient way, Tendring would either kill block or defend the attacks. Tendring’s libero Rees Warren caused Lynx’s attackers a lot of frustration by picking up one after another of their huge spikes, which setter Connor Bui would convert into a precise set to one of Tendring’s offensive players who would then score with a clever and well placed hit. Serving once again was a key to success and Tomasz Morawski would go on a 7 point serving run allowing the set to close at 25:15.
The Lynx team tried to regroup for third set adjusting their positions but the experienced Tendring team reacted immediately and continued to serve strong, pass well and be clinical in offense. The third set was under Tendring’s control and despite a spirited comeback at the end of it from the Lynx’s team, Tendring managed to close comfortably at 25:20 and claim the game in 3 straight sets.
The whole Tendring team played very well in all elements and the MVP was given to an outside player Tomasz Morawski.
Tendring will now host Bristol VC on the 21st of April and strive to maintain their unbeaten status in Division 2 South.