Leeds v Newcastle Staffs Ladies – Saturday 29th October 2011-11-01
NSVC Ladies headed north for their encounter with Leeds with high hopes after their previous home success against Loughborough.With Bellamy and Fumagelli both missing, setting duties were taken by Mankee and Roberts, Jodie Amor made her Castle debut and Copestake stepped into the libero role after 3years at Birmingham Uni. Unfortunately Gurgul sustained an injury in the warm which ruled her out of the game, meaning last minute changes to the starting 6.
The changes seemed to affect Castle with the passing unit particularly struggling and hitters Viggars and James both struggled to find their rhythm. Leeds took full advantage and raced to a 9-6 lead. With Castle always chasing the game and battling to find any consistency, Leeds deservedly took the set 25-19
Despite a slight improvement in the reception the 2nd set would still see Castle struggling to find any tempo. The introduction of Amor and Millican seemed to steady the team at the net. But a now confident Leeds with Routledge inparticular causing problems, Leeds again always held the lead and saw the set out 25-21.
The 3rd set was to see a change of tempo from Castle as they finally made a positive start leading 8-5 at the first technical time-out. With the girls backcourt also finally matching that of Leeds, confidence grew and with winners being hit by all wing players Castle took the set comfortably 25-17.
With momentum now in favour of NSVC, the 4th set stated in familiar fashion with both Stuart and Chadwick blocking well. But the experienced Leeds side would now dig deep and from 20-15 down would battle back to 22-22. From this point onwards a combination of both great and nervous play from both sides would take over as the set became something of an epic. Castle would survive 2match points before finally winning the set on their 7th attempt 34-32.
Both teams soon put the marathon 4th set behind them as the battle continued in similar fashion into the 5th. At 10-9 down, captain Mankee found key hitters with well timed sets to edge Castle in front. Leeds as ever battled on, but Copestake provided solid first pass and on their second match point Castle took the game 17-15
The girls despite being far from happy with the performance the players were obviously delighted with the win after coming from behind and also acknowledged the fighting qualities of their opponents.
Leeds 2 NSVC 3 – 25-19, 25-21, 17-25, 32-34, 15-17
