Docklands made it five wins out of five in National Division One on Saturday, but they had to work hard before seeing off Newcastle Staffs 3-2 in a gripping encounter at Keele University.

Newcastle, relegated from the Super8s last season, are likely to be one of the big rivals for Docklands this term and this victory may prove to be a vital one.

Coach Ercument Karakoc was delighted with his team’s performance. “This is the first serious challenge for us this season,” he said. “We have grown as a team in the past few games, but we need to remain focused and make sure that we don’t forget what we’ve learnt in the last couple of months.”

The first set was intense until at 17-16, Staffs managed to take advantage of the home court and after a good run of blocks managed to close it out at 25-23.

Both teams started playing a much higher level of volleyball in the second set with some fantastic attacks by Raul Sanchez Galan for Docklands and Rupert Scott for Staffs.

With the score at 14-14, a series of pressuring serves from Piotr Majorkowski and great blocking ability from Slawek Omylski put Docklands ahead of the game with a comfortable lead of 20-14 and they maintained their lead until the end, securing it 25-19.

Docklands also took the third set with a 25-19 scoreline after setter Marc Schaepertoens managed to provide Docklands’ wing attackers, Sanchez Galan and Majorkowski, with plenty of ammunition.

It seemed that Docklands had secured another win in the fourth set when they were leading 22-18, but a series of skilful serving and three aces from Staffs kept the game going to 22-22, before they nicked it 25-23 to take the game into a decider.

The crucial fifth set started well for Docklands who took the lead 3-1 after several errors. A good serving streak from Platon Vogiatzoglou secured Docklands a lead of 9-5, which stretched to 14-9. Sanchez Galan then secured Docklands the win after an amazing hit from position two.

Docklands are currently fourth in the league, three points behind leaders Danes Watford, but with three games in hand.

Docklands’ next match is a third round cup tie at home against current holders Wessex.