Onyx maintain mid-table place

Onyx beat ULU 21:16 21:11 21:19

ULU strong challenge
In both the early stages and in the later ones, ULU played very well and looked the match of their mid-table opposition, belying their record of being without a league win. In Queen’s Park they issued a challenge to future opposition: take care.

They won the first two rallies of the match to state their intentions and moved speedily to lead 6:9. Onyx didn’t really settle and although they took the lead briefly, the university was in front again at 14:16. A shock looked to be in store but they were unable to impose themselves on the play and the home side eased through the rest of the set.

After four rallies shared, the students hardly settled in the second set and Onyx raced to 11:18 before polishing it off. How different was the third. In a short spell of even play the score mounted to 5:all. ULU then took charge and, with some excellent volleyball raced to 5:12. Onyx settled once again and very slowly recovered eventually drawing level as late as 18:all. If ULU had had more confidence they might have forced their way back but Onyx were now on a roll and ULU fading.

It was to be an Onyx win although a warning to all.

Players
Onyx
Starting Six: Federica Bianchi (captain), Maaike de Jager, Laura Frassine, Angela Parrozzani
Joana Silva, Laura Watara.
Libero: Alessandra Largo.
Other players: Lina Gonzales, Jana Parmova.
Coach: V Bettini.

ULU
Starting Six: Sonia Constantinou, Daniela Feltrin, Michaela Lagoudaki, Veronica Rossi (captain).
Aikaterini-Styli Stavropoulou, Wen-Hsin Tsou.
Libero:
Other players: Melissa Li.
Coach: Alex Kales

Referee: Ryszard Dabrowski.

Queen’s Park CS, Brent, 2nd February

Contributor, Douglas Barr-Hamilton