London Red Rebels lost to Giant Men (Men’s D2B - London Volleyball League) 21:18 9:21 19:21 20:22 Three in a row for newcomers A month into the season the team was bottom of the division with two home losses in succession. Now, after three wins in a row, Giants are threatening third spot in the league table. It was, nevertheless, a highly competitive match. After Giants had the better of the early exchanges by a slight margin, the home side settled well and from two-thirds way through the opening set moved steadily away. Having won the first rally of the second, they appeared to over-relax and were quickly 1:4 down, a situation from which they were unable to recover as Giants raised their game. The visitors having gone quickly to 2:11 and then 4:16, Rebels appear to have decided to conserve their energy for the next two sets and they were changing ends again after only thirteen minutes. The next two sets were excellent and a credit to the division. Giants were always in front in the third but only ever by a tiny margin and the scores were tied at 14:all and 15:all. Then a couple of good serves from Krasi Zhechev brought points for the visitors and, having established a two point lead, they hung on to the end of the set. Rebels made a disappointing start to the fourth but fought back in a wonderful fashion to produce a terrific end to the game. Slowly, very slowly, they reduced the gap. Rebels having recovered from 14:16 to 16 all, Giants called a time-out. Coach Anestis Kales failed to calm his side and Rebels moved ahead 16:18. Anestis asked for another half-minute. Rebels continued to produce the goods: 20:16. A fifth set looked certain. However, Giants recovered their composure and saved a point, then another, then a third. Home doubts? Giants showed certainty. Harris Academy, Peckham Rye, 10th January Players: London Red Rebels Starting Six: Marek Cynar, Denzil Faure (captain), Muhammad Glynas, Hoanh Lam, Atam Shuma, Evangelos Tsiapkiars. Libero: Other Players: Dennis Ourgin, Coach: Giant Men Starting Six: Federico Cifuentes, Victor Goncalves, Simon Granger, Radostin Dimitrov, Roberto Rigante(captain), Krasi Zhechev. Libero: Ibrail Khan. Other players: Guiseppe de Mosa, Anton Romalijsky, Marcin Tkaczuk Coach: Anestis Kales. Referee: Valerij Grisenkov.
Source : http://www.londonvolleyball.org.uk/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1587