TN at double as sides stay unbeaten

TEAM Northumbria men and women remain unbeaten in volleyball’s Super 8s following a winning weekend at Sport Central.

TN women delivered a blistering performance that saw them knock current champions Durham off the top of the table.

The two sides met in a BUCS fixture last week that saw TN take a narrow win 3-2.

But it was a very different performance from the visitors as they suffered a severe bout of travel sickness.

Durham brought along a busload of supporters but it was an in-form TN that started off strong in the first two sets, in a game that saw the visitors struggle with the hosts’ offensive play.

The away side finally appeared to find some of their form and fight in the third set but TN quickly shut down the recovery to take the game in a 3-0 straight sets win.

“I think we were very disciplined,” said captain Jurja Vlasic. “We had a tough time in the BUCS game but we switched on for this game.

“They made a few changes which forced us to make some changes, but we were very sharp and I have to give credit to my players.

“All of them stepped up and all of them were aggressive so it was a very good team performance.”

Head coach Davis Goodchild echoed his captain’s view.

“As a whole the game was definitely one of the best three performances in the seven years I’ve been here with regards to the women’s game,” he said.

“They were faultless and they blew away the champions of last year.

“Durham are a good team and they’ll bounce back – we just played really well and they had a bad day.”

TN’s men team had a tougher time in their fixture as Sheffield Hallam put in a powerful performance.

Goodchild’s side had to dig deep for a fantastic comeback in the second set to bounce back from a four-point deficit and win 25-23.

TN’s men have now extended their lead at the top to nine points.

“We had our first defeat on Wednesday to Durham [in BUCS] so we spent a lot of time on Thursday looking at video,” added Goodchild.

“As a team we are very happy with the performance.

“I’m really pleased the way we’ve bounced back but we know in two weeks we have a tough weekend away to Polonia and Wessex.”