The Perfect weekend...

It was a busy weekend for Guildford International Volleyball Club with all their teams playing away matches.

Guildford women had the opening match of the weekend in the Surrey League away to table topping Richmond on Friday night. Guildford started strongly taking the first set, but were pegged back as the home side levelled things up. Playing with renewed assurance Guildford pushed on to take the next two sets and clinch a 3-1 victory which takes them up to 3rd place in the league.

On Saturday both of Guildford's National League teams were in action in a double header fixture in Essex. Guildford men were first up in their division 2 match against Essex Estonians. Fighting to avoid relegation Guildford have begun to string together some performances that give them hope that they might avoid the drop and now have the teams above them nervously looking over their shoulders.

Things didn't start well for the Surrey side as they lost the opening two sets to 19 & 15 points respectively. A tactical switch for the third set saw setter Alexandros Panayides move to the outside hitting position where he was able to use his height advantage against the smaller Essex block, Guildford fought hard throughout a tight third set to take it 25-23. In the fourth set Guildford managed to hold a small lead through out to force the match to a deciding 5th set.

After a nervous start Guildford established a lead as the combination of middle hitter Tomas Miskovsky and outside hitter Nicholas Epiphaniou proved unstoppable at the net.

With matches to come against the teams immediately above them there is the potential to achieve their own great escape.

Guildford women took to the court next against Essex Trinity who had already scored a 3-0 victory over Guildford in the reverse fixture in the first half of the season. Coached by GB Olympic player Rachel Layborne, Essex had a distinct height advantage over Guildford, who also had the setback of one of their players withdrawing on the morning of the match.

The opening couple of sets were close, characterised by long rallies with great defence from both teams, Guildford held firm clinching the both sets by closest of margins.

Two sets up can be a dangerous score for a volleyball team as the combined factors of a team easing off in a 3rd set lull and the opposition determined to keep the match alive. So it proved for Guildford as the set quickly became a case of damage limitation and finding some sort of rhythm in their play to build on and take into the rest of the match.

Luckily for Guildford they were able to regain their composure building on the solid service reception and inspirational defence of MVP Egle Pesti, establishing an early lead, which they were able to hold on to take the match 3-1, despite a late come back from Essex.

It was the Guildford local league mens teams that too center stage on Sunday with Guildford Tsunami against Wimbledon in Surrey League Division 1 and Guildford Cyclone playing against East Grinstead in Division 3.

Tsunami were missing a couple of players, but even so enjoyed a fairly comfortable 3-1 victory. While Cyclone maintained their charge for promotion with a comfortable 3-0 win, retaining top spot in the division with an assured performance against the bottom team.

Cyclone will surely face a sterner test at the end of the month when they play the 2nd placed team Earnst Young later in March.

Even after a hectic weekend of matches there was still a good turnout for the clubs Open Sunday evening session at Surrey Sports Park, showing that Volleyball remains as popular as ever in Guildford.