LONDON ORCAS 3 - 2 TENDRING LADIES

20-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-12, 15-11

Report by Emily Bell

After a 3-2 loss at home against the London Orcas, the Tendring girls started the game looking for revenge with Mechell Daniel serving us to a 7-0 lead.

A lack of errors and some big kills from the front row saw the women win the first set 25-20. A quick change of sides effected the momentum and Orcas came out with some fire. Both teams traded points with big blocks and great defence but Orcas came out on top and we lost the second set 19-25.

Player/Coach Colleen King gave some words of wisdom before the third set and again Tendring were pulling out all the stops, the setter distribution from Molly Van Essen was on point allowing out middles to score points and give the pins some one on ones. Molly Van Essen, Colleen King, Mechell Daniel and Milly Smith also continued the great service runs and Tendring took the third set 25-21. A lack in mental focus caused a dip in performance in the fourth set and Orcas went on to win 12-25.

Tensions were high as we prepared for the fifth set. Tendring got stuck in service receive and ended up 3-0 down, Libero Lena came to the rescue and allowed us to side out, both teams were trading points, unfortunately Tendring couldn’t finish the set and lost in the fifth, 11-15. The whole team was involved throughout the game, Erica Morawski and Lois Chitticks came on and added stability to the game. Both stepped in and upped the level of the game when the team needed them most. Erica Morawski had some amazing defensive plays and Lois Chitticks had great connections with the middles and outsides.

As a team, there are some aspects of the game that need improving to help us finish the 5 set games but, there are many positives! The middles blocked consistently, allowing the defence to set up properly and hustle hard, the setters played some great defence and the outsides had some awesome line shots.