Monday, November 14, 2011

Men 2 - A day of drama

Outside: Richard, Sultan and Dan
Middle: Vivien and David
Opposite: Ghislain
Setter: Sam

1st match against Maidenhead – an eye opener – most of our team had never experienced the speed and power of their constant hits and serves. Under their jump serves, our reception was completely shattered. 1st set was a disaster: 10:25.

2nd set started with Maidenhead’s a player missing. Penalised a point. With that interval, we were slowly picking up. With many of the opponent’s hitting into the net, the pressure on us was less daunting and we managed to close the scores: 21:25. A bit of drama with the referee, who was very harsh on our double touches until Captain Sam protested he should be fair to the other team as well.

Our one and only Richard got his first MVP nomination!

2nd match against Reading Uni was THE exciting roller-coaster experience. They had a full squad this time and was in the lead in the first set. We started slowly but not in a panic state. The drama started with the referee again who was extremely harsh on double touches first on our side, then on the other side too. We lost 20:25.

2nd set was a complete change of scene. Our reception started beautifully. Ghislain got all his confidence back and every single passing was perfect. Vivien, Sultan, David all received well. Vivien and David completely sealed the opposition’s attacks. Dan did a flying dig, which stunned everyone! Reading Uni completely lost their form; they were hitting out or into the net. Then, Sam, Ghislain and Vivien added icing on the cake with a few aces. We finished them off 25:12.

3rd set. Reading Uni’s serving was not strong and our reception again was brilliant. We carried on the momentum and was in the lead when changing sides. We got to 11:8 then suddenly due to a few mistakes of our own, Reading Uni came back 11:11. From then on, it was ‘you win one, we win one’. The atmosphere was incredibly intense. It seems to have dragged on forever. But we held our nerves. Again Ghislain’s passing and defence, Sultan and Vivien’s hitting, Vivien and David’s blocking, all worked wonderfully. We won: 21:19. Ladies and Gentlemen, imagine the blissful joy and exhaustion: the hall was filled with our noise!

Simon (can you believe it?) did not play at all, but he was nominated as MVP for this match! Happy Birthday, Simon!

(written by Sam)

1 comment:

  1. WHAT? I hope it is a joke about the second MVP!
    Anyway well done guys! Even if you lost the first game it doesn't look like you gove them an easy second set. I'll be there next time!
    (By the way, I like this "news report" thing. Carry on doing that capatains!)

    Simon

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