IC Volleyball hit back against a disorganised LSE

This Wednesday IC Volleyball Club was scheduled to play London School of Economics in both ladies’ and men’s but at different venues. Early in the week the two fixtures seemed destined to cancellation after a lack of referees in Greater London hit both clubs. After relentless efforts from committee members and sports administrators in both universities, the matches could finally be played as initially schedule, or almost: home at Ethos for the ladies and away at Britannia Leisure Centre for the men.

Ladies’

A great start of the season for the ICVC women’s team, who won 3-0 against LSE at their home venue, Ethos. With the clear objective of being promoted to 1st division again, the team seems to be heading in the right direction! The start of the game was a bit tough, with the reception being weak, not allowing proper hitting. However, after six lost points in a row, the team started improving the reception, and some amazing hitting was seen. Great serves from Chloe Lacombe (the Club’s President and opposite player of the team) also allowed the team to fully come back to the game, and great defence was also key in winning the first set. During the second game, LSE showed very good defence making it harder for the team to finish the points quickly. However, constant and strong hitting – especially from the outside player Eszter Ujvari and the middle player Sarah Wettstadt – allowed the team to keep winning point after point. Great setting from Lucia Cilloni was key in making those amazing hits happen. During the third set, some rotations took place, allowing a newly trained setter, Gemma Pitotti, to do an amazing job at distributing the game, especially between positions 4 and 2. Even if some mistakes kept LSE closer during this set, the team stayed confident throughout the whole time and ended up winning this third and last set. This first victory was extremely important for the team, since they need to finish first in the league to be promoted to first division.

Men’s

With a team patient after multiple potential rescheduling, ICVC Men’s arrived at Britannia LC for warm-up at 17:30. After some light individual warm-up, the bad news arrived … LSE had not booked the venue. ICVC Men’s could now go home after an anti-climactic win by forfeit. Not really the promised challenge they had in mind … ICVC Men’s is due to return to competition next week for a home match against the University of Essex. First serve at 18:30 at Ethos.