Players from the Lincolnshire Junior Development Programme get a call up from their base club to represent Birchwood in a cup match against Spalding Juniors.
The report is about Lincoln Junior Development Programme (LJDP) players, Amie, James, Ellie, Becks and Emma who represented Birchwood volleyball club in this recent cup match. The match warm up has started with Birchwood having won the toss and decided to serve first. A great start to the game by Birchwood, a deadly serve by Amie hitting the net and just going over. Next couple of points go to Spalding which are a very loud and enthusiastic team. Suddenly, a burst of points from Birchwood which gives them the lead at 8-7. An awesome serve again by Amie, to bring up an excellent ace. It is a great start to the first set by Birchwood, they are leading Spalding Juniors which were struggling with there defence and still haven’t been able to find their rhythm. Incredible determination and good communication from James to win them point and make the lead large at 7 points, (23-16). Set won and a great start from Birchwood, score at the end of the first set was 25-17.
Another good start to the set with Emma consistently serving the ball over which is putting Spalding under immense pressure after they failed to get their first serve in. A controlled three touch that wins Birchwood the point with a high accurate pass by James, which Emma produced an excellent set that was executed by Becks. Afterwards, Birchwood put even more pressure on Spalding by Becks serving five in a row which left the score at 13-4. Then followed by an awesome pass and spike from Ellie which gave another point to Birchwood. However, Spalding Juniors fought back with some good controlled play which enabled them to get six points back. But, once again Birchwood responded and they are now 7 points ahead, with the score at 21-17. A great finish to the end of the second set with great commitment and excellent serving from James. The second set finished 25-17 to Birchwood.
A shaky start to the third set by Birchwood, even though their three touch was good but they couldn’t seem to get the ball in the oppositions court. However, there was a very hard hit from James which gave confidence to the whole side. The first time out in the third set was called by Spalding, simply because they weren’t communicating; with the score at 12-6. However, the Birchwood team are having slight problems with the rotation and were not reacting to where they should have been. But an awesome three touch by Birchwood which started with a great pass from Ellie and set by Emma so James could spike it hard leaving the opposition no chance. With the score at 18-14 James tries to break the sports hall roof by desperately trying to get to the ball. The first time out was called by Birchwood because they started to loose points and therefore started to panic. Immediately after Birchwood started to improve with Amie hitting an awesome spike down the line, so a great time out called by the coach Chris Brown. Then Birchwood seemed to step up a gear and finished the match with a surprising score at 17-25, which was the same as the other two sets.
In conclusion, Birchwood won the match 3-0, and for the first time as a team they played exceptionally well. However, there were still improvements to be made like getting the rotations right and trying to cut out some silly errors, for instance hitting the ball into the net and improve their communication at times. But that will only come with experience.
Alex Brown