Britain’s women lost their second consecutive Sitting Volleyball pool match of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCeL on Saturday, going down in three sets to a classy Dutch side.
Ranked No. 4 in the world, the powerful Netherlands side were too strong for coach Stephen Jones’ Paralympic debutantes and ran out easy winners 25-13, 25-12, 25-15.
“They are an amazing team,” admitted GB captain Clare Harvey. “They are very experienced and it was really a hard fight for us.”
With Marieke de Ruijter and Djoke van Marum scoring well, Netherlands eased to through the first set, 25-13.
Britain rallied to take an early lead in the second, but were soon pegged back by Netherlands, who stayed ahead and took the set 25-12.
Britain looked a little stronger at the start of set three, but Netherlands’ ruthless play and effective blocking punished them again. They shut down the match at 25-15.
“We tried many different things, but it was very difficult to get around their block, which is their best weapon,” said the 40 year old Harvey from Gillingham.
After losing 3-0 to Ukraine in their first match on Friday, Britain badly need a win against Japan on Sunday evening to maintain any hope of a place in Wednesday’s semi-finals.
Harvey said: “It’s going to be a very different game from the two previous ones. They are very mobile, but they will attack more because their block is not as good.”
