Dave's Delight At Title Win

Team Northumbria have clinched the women’s volleyball national title after defeating hot favourites Leeds Carnegie.

Coach Dave Goodchild expressed his delight with the win, labelling TN’s women 'the best team in the land'.

He added: “We were just amazing. It was the best they’ve played all season by a long way.

“We had prepared well for the game and on the day everyone was up at 8am training for an hour before breakfast.

“We began warming up at 12.30pm which got everyone mentally prepared and the women were in such good spirits.

“Our team were massive underdogs going into the final. Leeds have 10 or 11 players on international scholarships so they are very strong.

“We began with a 2-0 lead, winning the sets with 15 and 18 points so we started strong and were destroying them.

“We targeted individual players and put pressure on them through our serving.

“Our serving was excellent and from that we made them make errors. Hannah Gary was our best server and she also attacked well.

“Federica Guida, Magda Ropiak and Victoria Black all passed very well. They made a strong passing unit and were very good together.

“Kai Johnson was also unstoppable and Magda playing on the left continued to be a problem for Leeds.

“Setter Lindsay Johnson also deserves a special mention. She was the play maker and distributed the ball really well.

“Unfortunately for us Leeds upped their game after we had a strong head start and we began to make errors.

“The next two sets we lost 25-23 and 25-21 so they were still close but we knew we had to do something differently.

“We changed our system and rotation to counteract Leeds' game plan and it paid off as we won the final set 15-10.

“We were initially 6-4 down in the final set so we called a timeout and I urged them to just give it everything they had.

“Then we pulled ahead and were on 10 when they called a timeout. Federica got five great balls in a row and that was it.

"Looking forward to next season I've already started bringing in new players as only two of the current players will be here next season."

Goodchild thanked all the players and the staff who made the current team’s great achievements possible.

He added: “I’m delighted as are all the team. Everyone thoroughly deserved it and as well as thanking the brilliant efforts of all the players I’d like to thank the staff involved, especially Audrey Cooper, Karen Beattie, Matt Bianco and Ross Enfield.

“I’m sure this will be our first national title of many and I’m looking forward to going on to bigger and better things with the team in the future.”

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