VOLLEYBALL: Cleobury Mortimer's women eased their National League Division Two relegation worries further with a comfortable 3-0 home win over a poor Loughborough Students side.

The first set started in a scrappy fashion with both sides making errors and the score level at 7-7 but then Sam O'Connor stood tall at the net to stop Loughborough's style of attacking.

The home side then found a rythm with Lyndsey Rankin supplying a continuous three-point pass to the setter as they dominated the remainder of the set.

Loughborough had a late surge but Cleobury finally finished the set off 25-20.

The second verged on boring as player-of-the-day Becky Brookes had two runs of serving to take 12 points all by herself.

Sam Harding found her hitting form and Sophie Cooke closed the set out at 25-15 with an unexpected fast attack followed by her aggressive, swinging serves.

Cleobury made radical changes but still took the third set 25-18 without having to work too hard.

Harding moved out to the wing and terrorised Loughborough with her cross-court hits, Rankin provided quality ball as a setter and middle Clare Jones linked up well to kill balls.

Cleobury men lost 3-1 to Wombourne in West Midlands League Division One and failed to take over from their opponents at the top of the division.

They won the first set 25-18 but lost the next two by similar 25-15 scorelines and then the fourth 25-20.

Man-of-the-match was skipper Nick Di Marco for a hard working and dependable display.

They are now relying on other teams to do them a favour if they have any realistic chance of winning the league this season.

Cleobury ladies comfortably beat Newcastle 3-0 in the West Midlands League (25-17, 25-20, 25-15).

Harding and Cooke made use of the ball on the net, while setter Brookes worked hard.

Louise Rochelle steadied the back court with solid passing and there was a brief appearance for up-and-coming junior Jess Heywood.