Lewie Tilley Sports News

By Lewie Tilley

The Warrington Wolves Volleyball Club came out victorious against a new-look Chester Black Hawks side in a convincing 3-0 win in straight sets, winning their third game of the first five.

Warrington Wolves came into this game having won two and lost two in the Men’s division two, their opponents came into it having not played a game so far this season.

This left a sense of unknowing for newly appointed captain Leon Lui as the Black Hawks’ side looked to have changed drastically compared to the year before.

Lui said: ‘Expectations were definitely sceptical knowing they hadn’t played a game in the league so far. We knew they weren’t one of the strongest teams, but their age group of players were definitely on the younger side, so potential for threat was present.’

For the first set of the game, the Wolves lined up with a weaker side than they had within the team, but this wasn’t present in the play. They took a strong lead quite quickly, often utilising their ability to build up well.

Warrington built up a 14-3 lead early on with the Black Hawks struggling to find anything to get them back into this game. However, after a few mistakes from the home side, mixed with strong spikes from Zac Boothby, the scoreline read 15-7.

The Black Hawks resurgence continued as the deficit was cut down to only three points at 21-18, but Warrington Wolves took back control of the set and pushed on to go 1-0 up in the game with a 25-20 win.

Although, the threat from the Black Hawks was more than present in the second set as they took a 5-1 lead in the beginning. However, the strength of their opposition shone and the comeback to 11-10 was topped off by a Harry Birchall spike.

The second set proved to be a closer encounter as the points were spread more evenly throughout. However, the Wolves stayed on top and overall dominated the play with Milan Gray, Marcin Grabarcyzk and Alex Khairuddin at the core of the build-up play in winning 25-21.

Lui added: ‘I was happy with the score as the people playing, despite some being new and playing in different positions, still fought and earned the set.

They got a lot of experience against some younger more athletic players and also had a fair fight yet managed to still come out on top.’

The Warrington side was altered for the final set of the game as Lui introduced himself into a side that was closer to their main six, which was more obvious by the eventual scoreline.

This was more evident in the set as the Black Hawks would have a mountain to climb to get anything out of this game. Strong spikes from Lui, Grabarcyzk and Birchall put the game to bed as the 3-0 win was secured.

After the win Lui said: ‘All in all, a 3-0 win was what I was expecting and was what we got. I had no doubt in my mind that we would win this match, whether they had would’ve gotten a set from us or not.’

He added: ‘We are currently top of the league and I believe we have a really strong chance of staying there for a while.’

Featured image by Lewie Tilley.