On 18 December, Men 1 played their last matches of 2011 in Headington School Oxford. Let out to play for Oxford were Gérard, Jeremy, Jon, Martijn, Rune, Steve, Lukasz, Neil.
First match against Farnborough (also known as the team with the Polish twins): For this match, they had brought some of their female players, allegedly to put us off somehow. We got off to a flying start thanks to a good warm-up and focus (mainly on volleyball). Steve served 8 times in a row to get us 13-5 ahead. Farnborough got back to 14-10 and a time-out was in order to get everyone back playing normal again. From there, we continued our good level of volleyball with some fine blocking and ‘dig, set, spike’ all around. We closed off the set comfortably at 25-19. The second set saw the debut in the bva league for Lukasz. A usual slow starting second set gave Farnborough the lead. From 5-1 down to 6-5 up, we trailed again at 11-15. We then brought on our super-sub and turned things on again. Lukasz got into the swing of it and started to hit as we know he can. Some more blocking (including one from Jon) caused them big trouble. At 19-19, we scored 6 points against their 4 to win the second set 25-23 and the match 2-0. MVP as voted by them: Martijn.
Second match against Oxford 2: They wanted revenge from a few weeks ago, and they even called up a new libero to do so. We had a good start again, and took an early lead 8-4. Only for them to get back and taking advantage to finish some points gave them the lead 15-12. We traded points until at 18-20 behind, Jeremy served 7 points in a row, while his team mates blocked and finished the points to win us the first set 25-20. In the second set we changed things around a bit and it was a tight and at times a scrappy affair of Sunday evening volleyball. Oxford 2 was up 1 or 2 points for most of the match until 18-18. We went ahead 20-18, only to let them come back and ahead to 20-21, then 21-21, 22-21, 22-22, 24-22, 24-24, 25-24, 25-25, 27-25! Second set and match is ours 2-0. Perhaps not the best match to watch by the crowd up in the stands, but certainly a nail-biter. One more Oxford 1 vs 2 clash left which is scheduled for 1 April (no joke). MVP as voted by them: Gérard.
(written by Martijn)
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