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Essex Conference B Chelmsford 2 lost to Romford 0-3 Set scores 21-25, 24-26, 20-25 Good was not enough against strong Romford team Chelmsford 2 rounded off their Essex Volleyball Conference B season with an away match against Romford and despite a good performance, pushing the home side all the way, the result was a 3-0 win for Romford 25-21, 26-24, 25-20. Sandon student Hisham Ruhomutally took the Chelmsford player of the match award. Romford YMCA was the venue for this final outing in league competition for Chelmsford 2. They took a strong side and all played their part in pushing Romford to produce their very best. The visitors started with Richard Bohannan (captain) and Gary Mower setting, Marcin Kawulski and Hisham Ruhomutally middle attack with Thorsten Herbertz and Matt Ruffell in the power outside attacking roles. Coach Ken Edwards asked for an attacking approach to the game knowing that Romford would eat up any weak attacks and Chelmsford delivered this throughout the game. Some early errors from the home team did see Chelmsford hold a brief lead but as the power came through the Chelmsford back court came under pressure. Herbertz and Ruffell stood up well and were often in the firing line but were not always able to control the ball enough to set up the attack. Romford took the set 25-21. Looking for a way to improve the attack patterns, Chelmsford started the next set with new setters in Rachel Bohannan and Natalie Schultze. What they might lack in height in the block they made up for in precision in their setting and Kawulski and Ruhomutally benefitted by finding the ball set to them more often, and making good use of it. The rallies were hard fought and often it took three or four crossings of the ball across the net for one side to gain the upper hand. One huge block by Ruhomutally was especially memorable and kept the Romford attack quiet for the next few rallies. However it was not to be and a rare service into the net by Chelmsford at set point allowed the advantage to move back to Romford. They took their chance and the set 26-24. Although in set three, Chelmsford tried to shuffle things around using captain Bohannan as a hitter, recalling his earlier days as a devastating outside player, it was not to be their night. Again they stood toe to toe with Romford for long periods and their block improved no end, often blunting the power coming from the home team hitters. They forced the home team to raise their game to the level that has made them one of the championship favourites, but raise it when needed they did. A late flurry having been at one stage 20-13 down did see Chelmsford get within 5 points but a final jump serve form Parsons was enough to see the home side to a 3-0 result. The officials led by A. Molyneux had a good game and when asked spent some time thinking about naming the Chelmsford player of the match. ‘It could be any one of the players, but I picked out Hisham Ruhomutally for his never say die attitude and appetite for the ball, chasing it all over the court.’ Coach Edwards agreed – ‘Hisham has come a long way this season and has taken on board all the coaching points. He gets better every match and was a deserved winner last night’ Chelmsford now turn their attention to the Essex Cups where they have teams left in the Tachikara Plate, Janet Bedford Ladies and Manning-Philips Handicap Cups all looking for places in the finals to be held at Brentwood Centre on Sunday 13th June. |