Stachyra stars as Northampton Volleyball team claim big scalp on the road

It earned the team a crucial three points in their bid to avoid the drop, and delighted coach Lee Barnett as his side inflicted only a second defeat of the season on their hosts.

The win was the girls' fifth of the campaign, and leaves them sitting fourth from bottom, 10 points above second from bottom Chester Amazons.

"The team have been working so hard, it all came together this weekend," said Barnett.

"We have been waiting for a performance like this, and we certainly showed that on our day, we can compete with the best in this league."

Urmston are one place above Northampton, but had won eight out of nine fixtures going into the clash.

And it looked like the form book would be followed in the opening set as Urmston won 25-22 to take a 1-0 lead.

The second set could have gone either way, but Northampton, with their confidence boosted, held their nerve to edge it 29-27 to level to match at 1-1.

The third set saw both teams battling it out, but with belief taking hold of the Northampton team, they got stronger as it wore on and the set was won 25-20, so, Northampton went into the fourth set leading 2-1.

Outside hitter Dominika Stachyra then set the tone with back-to back-attacks.

The attackers kept working hard across the whole net, kept well oiled by setter Lisa Tasker’s balanced distribution.

Northampton were always in control and they again did the business, winning the set 25-17 to claim a superb 3-1 win.

Top servers were Stachyra, with 13 points won on serve and six aces, followed by Lidia Mishchenko and Indrė Stankevičiūtė with 11 each.

Percentage of kills were up 11 per cent, with captain Francesca Cardilli topping the scoresheet with 16 kills. Stachyra was voted MVP by Urmston.