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Photos: David Hoffmann
The women’s volleyball team won their first league match of the season in style as they dismantled Sheffield Hallam 1sts in straight sets.
York stormed to a 25-9 victory in the first set before edging out a tighter second set 25-21 as Hallam attempted to claw their way back.
The home side rounded off a comfortable victory, winning the final set 25-13, to record the perfect result after last week’s 3-1 defeat at Sheffield 1sts.
It was far from certain before the match that York would perform so well considering their principal setter, Lucia Linares, was unavailable due to an Achilles injury.
However, this did not appear to be a problem as York took an early 7-2 lead, utilising a rotation system with two setters in the form of captain Katharina Widerhofer and Selena Yeung.
Hallam were struggling to deal with Jitka Jizerova’s excellent serving technique while Yeung had soft hands at the net, setting up a number of deadly spikes.
York’s all-round communication was far superior, and their ability to salvage digs and turn defence quickly into attack was at times remarkable.
Before long a 17-8 advantage had been established, at which point the rather agitated Hallam coach called a second time-out of the set to berate his players.
But it made little difference as Widerhofer served out an ace to bookend Act One as the score read 25-9.
York stuck with the same line-up in the first set and it paid dividends as the home side raced to a 16-8 lead, with Jizerova producing yet more stunning digs while Christina Seechel and Yeung were again slick at the net.
However, Hallam fought their way back, winning 10 of the following 15 points as the scores read 21-18.
York quickly called a time-out to regroup and a few careless errors from Hallam relieved the pressure as the home side sealed it 25-21.
The third set began cagily with numerous long, cat-and-mouse rallies, but York were able to win the lion’s share to maintain the pressure and lead 7-4.
Alarm bells rang as Jizerova appeared to suffer a wrist injury but the setter recovered quickly and, together with captain Widerhofer, they propelled York to an 18-10 advantage.
The first action of the match was Widerhofer’s serve; the last was Widerhofer’s smart block as York claimed the third set 25-13. It was a fitting end to an exciting match and afterwards the captain told Vision: “We had to play a two-setter system but it worked out well. There was good communication and we managed to come out focused which helped.”