[2008.10.19] - Match report - Men’s first fixture of the season

Courtesy of Rune, Men team’s Captain:

“Oxford Volleyball Club is renowned for its slow start on any match day, but Sunday we further had to overcome the confusion of start of season. So to no surprise we were not really in the first game from the start, allowing Farnborough to pull almost ten points clear before starting to score any serious points. Eventually we settled in to our system, with Marc as new man on the setter position as is the customary choice for short players, and cleared up some basic misunderstandings like whether you are supposed to hit the ball or not. From this point on we pretty much kept pace with Farnborough. The first set was already lost, but we recovered to win the second only to see the game slip away in the tie-break.

Second match was against Basingstoke Bandits, one of the teams who played second division last year, so apparently a relatively easy task. We did take the first set convincingly with a score of 25-14, only to slip up and narrowly loosing the second. The tie-break ended up being much too close for comfort, ending with a 17-15 Oxford victory, though without ever allowing Basingstoke to go ahead.

Age concern once again showed its massive influence in British Volleyball, with Neil being awarded the Player of the Match nomination in this game. To be fair, he did to some extent earn it, chasing all the poor receives the rest of us pretty much sent all over the court.

So if you find the digging practise excessive at training in the weeks to come, you only have the Men’s team to blame. On a more positive note, the serving was very reliable with only one serve error on first serve in the two matches.

1000 Hugs & Kisses

Rune “