York volleyball team miss out on BUSA success as Leeds win on set difference
IT WAS A thrilling climax to the BUSA season for York Men’s Volleyball team as they missed out on winning League 2B by just one set difference to Yorkshire rivals Leeds.
Both teams finished the season on 27 points having lost just one match - incidentally to each other - but Leeds’ difference on sets won and lost was 21 to York’s 20.
The season culminated in a home fixture against Hull which York thought they just needed to win in order to take top spot. after an error on the BUSA website which stated that Leeds had lost to York St. John when they had actually won. This misunderstanding set up a thrilling encounter between York and Hull which saw York win 3-0 in what was the tightest of matches, only to find out that they had come second in the league after a tense wait to see how Leeds had fared.
The match was played out in a great atmosphere with both teams visibly fired up. There was some vociferous support for the home side.
In the first set there was barely anything between the two teams, but after some disputed decisions York looked set to take it as they required just one more point at 24-22. But having called a timeout Hull added to the tension and pulled the points back, until York finally saw it out 28-26 to take the crucial opening set.
Winning the first set looked to have composed York’s nerves slightly given the importance of the match, and they stormed into a 14-6 lead in the second set playing some excellent points.
But Hull were worthy opponents on the day, and towards the end of the set the lead changed hands constantly until York finally took it 25-23 in another extremely tight finish.
“We seemed to be much stronger than them on the vital points and just made fewer mistakes in general,” said York’s Stuart Leslie after the match, and this was certainly the case as York kept their heads to win some key points at the end of the second set.
With York looking strong at 2-0, Hull’s confidence seemed to drop slightly having missed out on two very close sets, but the tempo didn’t waver and the third opened with some gripping rallies.
York, who had looked defensively strong for the whole match, eventually did enough to win the set 25-21 and take the match 3-0 for what looked like a comprehensive win but was actually an excitingly close-fought match.
York had done everything they could to take first place having won without dropping a set, but when the match finished the players still had a nervous wait to see if they had in fact finished top of the division, only to learn in cruel fashion that they had missed out only by set difference.
There was nothing to separate York and Leeds and it is almost a shame that one team had to come second. York might look at the replayed away fixture against Leeds which they lost as their big chance, but regardless the team still have much to be proud of this season. They progress to the shield, where there are almost certainly some equally thrilling matches in store.
