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Opponents: Newcastle Staff Competition: National League Division 1 Date: Saturday 25th October 2008 Venue: Keele University Result: L 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 26-28, 25-21, 10-15) |
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London Docklands Volleyball travelled to Keele University at the weekend to face Newcastle Staffs in one of the hardest away trips of the season. This season Staffs were in the unusual position of defending top spot in the league and they had already won two dramatic five set matches at Keele. A large crowd were expecting another exciting match and that's exactly what they got. Docklands were rocked during the week by the loss of Boris Halatchev (knee injury) and with only one other regular middle blocker available, Onno Bos, coach Ian Legrand was forced to move Jesse Kaptein back to a position he last played in the 2003 cup final. With captain Alexis Blair and Alex Gaitan also unavailable, Danny Primus and Matt Mills were given their chance to help Docklands get their season back on track. Docklands had won the last six encounters but after the retirement of long time servant Ant Viggars and recruitment of Warwick Riga outside hitter Chris Anderson, Staffs were confident they could end their poor run. Docklands started solidly with a kill and an ace by Adam El Kass taking the visitors 5-2 ahead. Further good Docklands' play saw them stretch their lead after a Mills ace made it 9-5. But Staffs slowly forced their way back into the set and an ace by Dave Lovell tied the scores at 15-15. Both sides traded points until Docklands made the crucial break after some scrabbling defence from Primus helped his side go 22-20 up. New signing Riccardo Senatore came on for Wayne Davies, who was suffering from a stomach bug, and he produced two critical contributions in defence as Docklands were able to side out their way to a 25-23 first set win. Set two started evenly enough until a disastrous run of points for Docklands took the score from 8-7 to 15-7. The London side was unable to breach the Staffs defence whilst Anderson and James Cooper punished Docklands' tame attacks. The set was affectively over although Docklands regained some confidence towards the end of the set to narrow the gap at 25-19. Docklands managed to maintain their momentum in the third set, quickly gaining the upper hand after some clever serving by Kaptein. Staffs hung on as neither side could create a cluster of points until Mills produced a run of five serves. Assisted by blocks from Kaptein and El Kass Docklands went 19-14 up. But Staffs were not giving up and even though a Primus ace took Docklands three points from the set at 22-18 the home side dug in to make Docklands work for the set. Some persistent play and excellent defence by Staffs libero Andy Riding saw the scores tied at 22-22. Docklands recovered to earn the first set point at 24-23 after a kill by Bos. Staffs would save three set points, the final of which saw Falko Drijfhout shut out El Kass and shift the energy back to the home side. Drijfhout rose again in the next point to block Kaptein and send the Staffs players and crowd delirious. Primus went back to Kaptein in the next point but his spike went wide to hand Staffs the set 28-26. The Staffs players must have thought Docklands' chance had gone and when Kaptein was forced off after just three points of the fourth set with another knee injury it looked as though they could be right. Atanas Apostolov came on as an emergency middle blocker and with their backs against the wall Docklands started to play with some fluidity and self-belief. Primus kept varying his attack and an unexpected kill by Apostolov took his side 8-5 up. After a brief Staffs come-back, two consecutive hitting errors allowed Docklands to regain their three point advantage. Then a run of serves by Apostolov helped open up a 16-11 lead and with blocks by Mills and El Kass Docklands were able to close out the set 25-21. After winning both their opening home matches in five sets Staffs were not fazed by starting the shoot-out that is a volleyball deciding set. Cheered on by a boisterous home crowd, two Docklands' errors gifted Staffs the perfect start and then young setter Sam Allen shut out El Kass to take his side 3-0 up. Lovell netted his next serve which started a series of errors by both sides. Two Staffs errors in a row let Docklands close the gap at 6-5 and the one point gap remained after the teams had changed ends. Then Cooper forced his way through the Docklands' block and went back to serve. His first jump serve ace was from a fortunate clip off the net but his second caused a shanked pass taking his side 12-7 up and in complete control. He netted his next serve but the damage was done. El Kass saved Staffs' first match point to send Apostolov back to serve. Referee Paul Nixon had already overruled the home line judges three times in favour of Docklands and did so again on Staffs' second match point. However, he trusted the home official in the next point as Staffs took the set 15-10. Docklands' worst run of losses since the 2001/02 season has put them in a perilous position near the bottom of the table but Legrand was optimistic after the game, "It's obviously disappointing to lose again but we showed real spirit today and played as a team for the first time this season. As long as we build on this performance I'm sure we're one win away from a good run". Docklands
return to Bacon's College next Saturday in a must win match against fellow
strugglers City of Bristol. Black Knight: Matt Mills Docklands: Davies 11 kills (45 attempts), Bos 5 (13), Mills 9 (27), El Kass 15 (22), Kaptein 7 (16), Apostolov 1 (3), Senatore 1 (6), Primus 1 (3), de Oliveira (Libero). Warwick:
Drijfhout 6 (10), Allen 3 (6), Lovell 11 (28), Anderson 16 (43), Cooper
17 (40), Roberts 7 (13), Riding (Libero). Subs not used: Booth, Robins,
Carvell, Scott, Neveykin.
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