Aylesbury Vale Volleyball Club

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Match Report: Rudolf Steiner, Away 12th March 2006

3-1 win: 25-20, 28-26, 23-25, 25-15

Team : Bruce Archibald, Chris Seal (Capt), Jem Clark, Neil Bennett, Nicolas Lasbistes, Paul Clarke, Sara Clark, Suzanne Kruize & Tim Chandler; Coach: Nigel Collins.

Aylesbury Vale Volleyball Club beat Rudolf Steiner 3-1 (25-20, 28-26, 23-25, 25-15) away at Kings Langley to return to the top of Herts League Division 2, edging ahead of Welwyn who have a game in hand. This was Vale's first ever win against the young Kings Langley side who are Vale's bogey team. Earlier in the season Rudolf Steiner halted Vale's promotion challenge in its tracks with their only home loss. Now 3 wins in a row including the double over challengers Hatfield have revived Vale's hopes of catching Welwyn.

This was Vale's best squad performance yet showing the club's strength in depth. Vale won the first set comfortably 25-20 although service errors allowed Rudolf Steiner to compete. With Steiner using 2 wide hitters on either wing, Vale's middle blocker was pulled from side to side and struggled to close out the block. However, setter Sara Clark exploited the consequent hole in the Steiner block via middle hitter Jem Clark. As Vale rotated their squad, they won a close second set with setter Suzanne Kruize shocking Steiner with some tough serving, although generally Vale were still making too many service errors. Continuing with the squad rotation, Vale lost the third set narrowly 23-25 despite a good comeback after conceding 8 points on a difficult service receive rotation with reduced attacking options. However, Vale made no mistake in the fourth set with the starting six cruising to a 15-10 lead which was then stretched to an easy 25-15 win with tactical substitutions on the backcourt to keep the momentum up.

Set 1 rotation (1 to 6): Chris (OH), Sara (S), Jem (MB), Paul (OH), Nicolas (S), Tim (MB).

Set 2 rotation (1 to 6): Bruce (OH), Suzanne (S), Neil (MB), Paul (OH), Nicolas (S), Tim (MB).

Set 3 rotation (1 to 6): Bruce (OH), Suzanne (S), Neil (MB), Chris (OH), Sara (S), Jem (MB).

Set 4 rotation (1 to 6): Chris (OH), Sara (S) (sub Suzanne 15:10-24:15), Jem (MB) (sub Neil 22:13), Paul (OH), Nicolas (S), Tim (MB).

Nigel.