Another month, another Norwich tournament, another victory! 

Yes, Ipswich Rocks did it again. But there was a major difference between this tournament and the previous ones à the look!!! The Rocks rocked the place in their brand new team kit and they looked COOOOOOL!

Their first opponent – Out of nine – claimed that it must be the new kit that improved the team’s performance even more – the Rocks opened the day with an impressive 42:8 victory against this team. Straight after, the Rocks beat UEA2 35:15, but their minds were already somewhere else…they were about to face probably their biggest ‘enemy’ – UEA1.

Already the warm-up for the game was unpleasant – the Rocks had an unfortunate hit into the UEA1’s queuing players, which was returned very promptly and the hitter high-fived her team mate after doing so – how sporty! This type of attitude and probably a bit of nerves caused a block in the Rocks’ game and they walked off the court for the first time-out losing 7:13 . But not for long! Their coach (Gab) did not let them down and shortly after his little speech the Rocks were leading a game.

That’s when the coach of UEA1 decided to help his team – however, in their way: he started repeatedly shouting numbers of Rocks’ players and “Out of position, out of position!” This has confused the Rocks as well as referees – nobody understood what he was talking about. But he achieved his goal – the Rocks completely lost concentration and allowed UEA1 make a number of points. Rocks were then calmed down during the second time-out by Gab through explaining that they were not out of position. He told them to ignore the other coach and to play volleyball. Rocks did as they were told and managed to catch up. The score was 25:25. The last point was unfortunate à the ball slipped of Marta’s fingers onto the net and Lucy did not manage to recover it… The Rocks were sad and the following game against Cambridge was completely without any “juice”. It was silently won 40:10. However, it helped the girls get their moods back a bit and in the last match - against Pink Ladies - Rocks’ fans could hear much more of team’s new celebration shout: “Epaaaaa!” Despite some good hits through the middle, Pink Ladies lost 18:32 and Rocks went home to get some deserved rest.

Regarding the performance of the team, it was interesting; because Inga was chilling in her homeland, Lucy had to fill in the role of a setter. Her sets were very low, but that didn’t stop Anna making impressive hits through four and Julia through the middle. Ewa, despite her physical status of a living corpse, managed to play all the matches with less powerful yet point-making hits. Eva also played nearly without making any mistakes (surely showing off to her husband!). And Marta? She had two major roles: to set and to shout: “Lucy!” when Lucy forgot it was her turn to set. And as we all know Marta, she was very good at that!

Next month’s objective: BEAT   UEA1   BADLY!!!!

 

Posted by Lucy on 12/02/2008

 

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