Venue: Woodchurch High School

Volleyball England U18 Girls Grand prix Tier 2 Round 2

7 entries - Sheffield A&B, Newcastle Staffs, Black Country, Frodsham, Manchester Marvels, Wirral

Wirral team: Nina Hofmann(cap), Gina Nuttall, Eloise Duncalfe, Lois Watson, Lily Hogan, Lily Bloomfield, Issy Parr, Emma Parr, Nicole Uzonwanne

A famous victory and one of the best ever performances from a Wirral junior team. We lost one set in the first match against Frodsham but didn’t concede another through the rest of the competition.

The win was fully deserved, we served pretty well, set pretty well, blocked pretty well, and attacked pretty well, but our cover and floor defence was terrific and included some amazing recovery saves. None of the opposition teams we played could get the ball to ground. Only Manchester Marvels rivalled our girls for cover play but they had no real attack and by that stage (semi-final) our team was hitting winners and finding gaps in the centre and deep on the wings that Marvels couldn’t fill. The final against Black Country was a walk over 25-13, 25-13. They couldn’t defend the middle and couldn’t chase or control the ball as well as Marvels and after spells of winning serves from Gina and Nina could not get a toehold in the game.

Having Eloise in the team alongside Emma Parr and Lily Hogan gave us a really strong back court, Gina and Nina did their thing in the setter and opposite positions and Lois was able to dominate the net against every opposition team. We bossed the net and couldn’t be passed in back court, of course we won.

We always need a lot of help to put on competitions like this and need to thank Lauren for managing the event, Peter for his massive contribution in refereeing so many games, and Andy and Tom for helping out on the day.