Birmingham 0 - 3 Tendring Ladies
19:25, 8:25, 13:25
Report by Charlotte Bontems
On Sunday 25th November, Tendring Ladies had an early start to travel to Birmingham for an 11am warm up, where they defeated Birmingham 3-0. It was an all-round team effort during this game as everyone made it on court to play a number of points. After having a rest week with no games and only a handful of training sessions they maintained a good level of performance, energy and confidence.
The first started a bit unsteady, leading them to begin 4-0 down, however the Tendring Ladies brought it back with communication and confidence. As the set continued the team became more confident, with this the service receive and defence became solid with Greek libero Lena Bitadou hustling well to get the ball back over the net. Towards the end of the set Tendring Ladies pulled away winning the first set 25-18.
Through performing well at the end of the first set it allowed the team to go into the second set with their heads high and filled with confidence. American setter Piyusha Boteju distributed her sets allowing the attackers to have one-on-one blocking allowing them to kill the ball. Our service put the opposition under some pressure with a service run from a few of our player, Charlotte Bontems, Emily Bell and Helen Hunt. Outside hitter Mechell Daniel and middle blocker Amber Erhahon showed their abilities through killing many balls with a single or no block allowing Tendring to pull away and win the set 25-8. Marie-Lena Constantinou coming onto court for Mechell Daniel and killing the ball she was set then following up with a service run.
Yet another success for the Tendring Ladies in the third set, coach Mark Plotyczer making some changes, Holly Bentley came on for Piyusha Boteju, Mechell Daniel played opposite for Helen Hun, and Emily Bell and Marie-Lena Constantinou played outside, with the middles remaining the same. The intensity and drive was continued through onto this set even with the changes the team responded really well and continued to win the set 25-13 with some solid service receive allowing setter Holly Bentley to distribute her sets anywhere she pleased. Decision making from the team allowed them to play different systems therefore allowing them to run different types of offense, this allowed the team to win the set with confidence.