Girls warm up for Cup showdown with a Good victory
DAVE GOODCHILD insisted it is advantage Team Northumbria after the Sport Central club blew away PulsePoint London Orcas in last weekend’s National Cup final dress-rehearsal.
The two teams meet again in Kettering on Saturday with one of volleyball’s most prestigious prizes up for grabs.
However, Super 8s title winners TN go into the Cup final as hot favourites after defeating the Orcas 3-1 in the final regular-season clash of the 2016/17 campaign.
Goodchild said: “We went one set down against a team stacked with talent from top to bottom.
“Orcas are nothing like the side we beat earlier this season.
“However, I was not concerned. In fact I honestly felt it was a good thing we were down as it gave our players added incentive and totally changed their mindset.
“They were still smarting from the BUCS final defeat to Durham the previous week and going 1-0 down against Orcas sparked the right reaction.”
He added: “We wanted to put them in their place ahead of the Cup final and that is exactly what we did.
“We were not trying to keep anything up our sleeves - we just wanted to go all out for a big win.
“That is what is going to stick in the Orcas’ players’ heads all week now.
“They will be dwelling on that defeat and by contrast we know we can beat them if we are at our best.
“If we are not, of course, then the Orcas are quite capable of beating us on their day.”
TN’s women are chasing a domestic treble with the National Cup and Super 8s play-offs titles in their sights.
The men, meanwhile, can still complete the double after wrapping up the regularseason title with a win against Solent on the south coast.
An injury-ravaged TN went down to Wessex 24 hours earlier but only required a point against Solent to wrap up the league title.
Goodchild added: “The guys did the job when it mattered.
“I always felt they would get the win we needed against Solent and now we can focus on making the play-off final.”