Malory Eagles are top of Super Eight, volleyball’s Premier Division, after beating Coventry & Warwick Riga 3-0 last weekend, writes Graham McConney.

Keen to exercise his new players, Williams started with setter Daniele Di Bella who steered the team to a solid start.

There was spirited resistance from Coventry (particularly libero Riding) but they were unable to hold Malory for very long. Di Bella also started set two but an on-court collision with team mate Darius Setsoafia led to his retirement from the game.

Substitute Ashley Trodden wasted no time in speeding up the tempo, connecting well with his power attackers, Setsoafia and Luciano Pinter.

Having come on at 17-11, Trodden ushered the team forward to a comfortable 25-16 win.

Set three was equally straight-forward for the Eagles as they overturned a minor deficit at the start to take the set to 18.

The workman like performance was spiced up by the excellent pace play from Trodden, controlled middle blocking from captain Mark Brown and committed defence from 17-year-old Chris Frost said: “It was pretty straight-forward, really."

There were victories too for Sheffield, Leeds Carnegie and Polonia. Newly promoted Leeds Carnegie look comfortable in the division and may even challenge for a top spot this year, quite an achievement for a newly promoted side.