Northumbria University W1 Volleyball landed yet another win on home court as they sealed a 3-0 victory against city rivals Newcastle University.
Although the hosts won in straight-sets (25-23, 25-18, 25-19), coach David Goodchild suggested there is still room for improvement.
“It was a real mix of ups and downs today,” said Goodchild. “When we played to our level it was literally a non-contest.
“We served them off the court, we passed really well, our offence was flying – we’re such a powerful and big team that it takes a good team to stop us.”
The first set was a scrappy affair and littered with errors from both sides - something Goodchild wasn’t too pleased about.
“We gifted the opposition a lot of points,” he added. “We made too many errors in set one - I think we gave away 12 serving errors.
“I think we were way too safe to start with and the girls agreed with that in the debrief.
“We need to do our jobs – focus on our processes – make the opposition earn the points and play our style of volleyball and not theirs.”
Northumbria improved as the game went on, and won thanks to some very impressive net play in the second and third sets, but didn’t match the level of their recent performance against Durham University.
“It is a local derby, and it does mean a lot to both teams,” added Goodchild. “Did that affect us…potentially. But Durham is a derby too and we blew them away so there is no reason why we shouldn’t have blown Newcastle away.
“The comparisons to us against Durham last week were very minimal and we need to improve our serving because we are a good team, but that would make the job a lot easier.”
Northumbria face Sheffield Hallam next and Goodchild thinks it could be another tough away game.
But he and his squad are up for the challenge.
“We’re aiming to win everything,” he added. “We have a great squad and it is going to be a difficult achievement. But I wouldn’t be being honest with myself or the team if I said we weren’t going to try and win everything”
Gav Pearson
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