Newly promoted Richmond Volleyball men made a great start to their National League Division Two campaign with a 25-23 25-19 25-16 win at Plymouth Activate, who finished in the top four last season.

Having kept the core of last season’squad together, Richmond have also brought in ex-Ukraine international Y Zdorovcov, former Russian international A Kornilov and juniors R Barchor and E Bardi.

Coach David Rijvers said: “We have put a statement out for the rest of the league.

“It was certainly a strong team performance and with all 11 players playing a part we will take confidence from this.

“We played well and sustained it over three sets. Plymouth are a good team and I am sure they’ll bounce back.”

Richmond visit Portsmouth in the National League Cup this Saturday.

Team List: P.Ceglowski, G.Scatigna-Gianfagna (cpt), M.Ghelfi, D.Cleather, T.Lasocki, L.Tomášek, T.Stepien; M.Sokolowski, Y. Zdorovcov (man of the match), A.Kornilov, R.Bachor, E.Bardi, D.Rijvers (Coach) .