Hawks took on MK City in their opening game in Division 1 on Saturday 3rd October.
The game was close from the beginning with both sides securing their 1st attacks by using outside hitters. With Hawks struggling with their hitting efficiency in the middle of the 1st set, MK took the chance to go into a 4 point lead. The turning point of the set happened when the captain of MK was injured whilst landing after a block. Hawks took the opportunity and the lead when Peteris, a new player to the club this season, hammered the ball onto the floor. Even though MK tried their best to catch up at the end with some very aggressive serving, Hawks still won the first set by 26:24.
Hawks had a wonderful start in the 2nd set when Mateusz Płaza served 9 balls in a row! Due to a shortage of players, Mateusz was borrowed from Falcons, who will also play in Division 1 league this year. With such a healthy lead, setter Jason Woodward decided to use more middle hitters to disturb the defensive strategy of the opponents, which contributed to some excellent hitting. Our biggest ‘gun’ on the court, Ian Drew, made lots of points when hitting through the middle, even including smart tipping to the corner. In the end, Hawks took the set by 25:21.
During the break, all players were talking about being aware of a come back from the other side. However, at the beginning of the 3rd sets, Hawks lost a bit of concentration and had trouble in their service receives. The libero, Tommy Cripps, also a new player to the club, solved this situation by contributing lots of accurate passing to the setter’s hands. The highlight of this set was Alberto Astolfo successfully shutting down the top scorer of MK with his monster blocks! The match finished with Hawks winning 25:18 and 3-0 overall. After the match, Peteris Putelis was named as the MVP.
“The first match is always the hardest”, said team captain Zhen Guo, “but we prepared well during the summer training sessions, and all players did their best today.” First referee Fiona Wilson also commented saying “this is the best Division 1 match performance from a team in our club for 12 years”.
Congratulations to all those involved and thankyou to all the officials for giving up their time.
