VOLLEYBALL: Cleobury Mortimer opened their National League Division Two campaign with a superb 3-1 success over Loughborough.

Coach Carl Brookes' work with the junior teams started to bear fruit with two proteges Sam Harding and Sophie Cooke included.

Integrating the young players and new wing hitter Eva Mort into the squad quickly will be key to Cleobury's success early this season.

Aiming to avenge their previous embarrassing defeat to Loughborough, Cleobury quickly showed they had a greater range of attack options than their opponents.

Mort played an outstanding game though the rest of the squad failed to match her accuracy.

Despite Mort and the inspiring play of player of the match Lyndsey Rankin, Loughborough were able to serve for 10 points and dramatically turn the first set to their favour.

A strong pep talk set Cleobury up for set two and they dictated the pace of the game with improved serving accuracy.

Despite the team switching off at 15 points, Harding rescued them with an excellent run of six serves to finish the set.

Cleobury increased in confidence with Becki Brookes marking her return to the league with solid wing hitting as they took a 2-1 set lead.

Helped by consistent and calm serving from Ellie Boddey, the ladies cruised to 20 points in the fourth set.

Loughborough rallied for a handful of points up to 19 but Clare Jones got the measure of their attack.

Jones blocked most of their attack hits and buried a perfect Boddey set to give Cleobury their first ever Division Two opening win.

Brookes was pleased with the display from his team who, even without experienced players, produced a standard that should ensure they compete well.

The challenge is to maintain the standard for the next 14 games.