TENDRING Volleyball Club's men marched on in the National Cup after seeing off underdogs London Black Bears.

The Bears put up a valiant fight but struggled to handle the firepower of the home team and ended up losing 3-0.

Tendring found a great deal of success through the middle, with both Jon Wheaton and Daniel Williams scoring frequently throughout.

They pulled the opposition's middles into sticking with them, which gave Tendring's other hitters more creative freedom when attacking throughout the game.

New head coach Riley Frieson sent the team out confident and eager to start the season with a win.

However, they struggled to find their tempo early on.

They traded points and ultimately failed to hold a lead.

A time out was called with Tendring down 20-19 and coach Frieson reminded the boys of the importance of relaxing and believing in their ability.

This worked well and Tendring closed the set out 25-21.

Having shown the character to come back and win that set, the team breathed new life and felt they could take on the world in the second set.

They did exactly that, winning the second set 25-7.

Special credit has to be given to Sonny Chaney, who came into the second set with a taste for blood and led the team with a variety of impressive hits from the right side to inspire the rest of the team to up their performance and push into a gear that the Bears simply couldn't handle.

Substitutes Ty Farnung and Dimitrie Gray also came on and performed well with the Bears' block incapable of handling Dimitrie's smart shots.

The third set saw Tendring head out with the aim to close the game out with no slip ups.

They followed this to the letter and defeated the Bears 25-8 thanks to an outstanding performance from Jon Wheaton and Jacob Jones, who both used a variety of smart and spectacular shots to confound the opposition and get the home crowd cheering as Tendring closed the game out, confident and looking forward onto the rest of the season.

Tendring now head straight back into training in preparation for their next home game on Sunday against local rivals Team Essex.