Sunday, January 22, 2012

Oxford Mixed - Great Games & Good Results !

Good evening all,
Just writing after coming back from Queen's Mary College in Basingstoke where the Oxford Mixed team played its 4th fixture against Spikeopaths 2 & Basingstoke.

1st Game - Spikeopaths 2 Vs. Oxford Mixed
After a long drive, a "Bang On Time" arrival and a short warm up, Spikeos & Oxford were ready to fight. Our team on court was Cornelius, Annika, Simon, Annette, Kerstin & myself. Good start from both teams but better succes for Spikeos (7-2 for Spikeos and then 10-9 after forcing us to take a timeout), but we finally made the break at this point by getting our confidence and clean playing back and we were in the lead 21-15. But Spikeos fought every point without fear and closed the gap (23-21). Our mindset for win was there, and we managed to finish the first set ahead 25-22.
For the second set, Helen was now replacing Annette and we got a stressfull start with a comfortable +8 points on the board for Spikeos 15-7 and one timeout used for Oxford. We then started getting points back and reduced the advance to +4 (23-19). But again Spikeos showed their strength at the end, not giving up any balls and this time won the second set 25-20.
And we were now ready for the 3rd set... Felipe replaced Cornelius & Annette was back on court replacing Annika. Everything had to be done again. But the alchimy worked once again. We played basic, clean, defensive but with strong finishes and we got the side changing ahead (8-5). After this point, we had only 2 servers: Felipe served 3 goods in a row (9-5) and then Annette finished the set without letting anything (15-6)... And this is another 3 points for the Oxford Mixed Team !! The MVP title went to Kerstin for her nice work at the net & her general and permanent reliability.

2nd Game - Basingstoke Vs. Spikeopaths 2
I will write a bit about this one as the game was really nice to watch, both teams providing a "nice to watch" level of volleyball. A special thought for one of the girls of Spikeos who had to come off court after injuring her wrist. It was again a tough game in 3 sets. And if I am right (and don't laugh as I was second ref & Kerstin 1st Ref...) I think Basingstoke won. But I will check it when the BVA updates the results...

3rd Game - Basingstoke Vs. Oxford Mixed
This time the initial team on court was Felipe, Annika, Corne, Annette, Helen & myself. We lost the first service but won it back straight and added up the points up to a comfortable lead 12-7. But pressure catched us back and we were now blocked in one rotation, not managing to pick up the ball or finishing it. And Basingstoke made an impressive come back and took the lead with 16-13. We fought a few more point but they were definitly stronger than us at the end of the set, finishing with a nice advance 25-20...
Right... The only way to win this is now 2 sets in a row... Everything had to be done for it. Simon and Kerstin were back again on court, replacing respectively Felipe & Annette. We lost the first point on reception but got the second, allowing then Annika to serve 8 winning points in a row (9-2) !! We fought every point, fearing Basingstoke to come back. But this time, there was no errors from our side, continuing scoring points after points and finally winning the second set 25-13.
We amost had to stop the game at this point as it was 3:10 and we were supposed to give the Hall back at 3:00 pm. But the Sport Center allowed us to finish the game up to 3:30, which we did !!
I decided not to change the lineup this time as the team on court was in a good mindset. The start of the set was tough, both team fighting well (6-6) including a strong block of Kerstin against the main hitter of Basingstoke, but Basingstoke won the court change 8-6 and scored again another point before we finally got the service back (9-7). And Helen boosted us by getting 4 services in a row. And we were now ahead 11-10. Everyone thought "No time to wait to get the service back...". But this is exactly what Basingstoke was thinking as well and ... it was again a tight 12-12 score. At this point, we had to make the difference. One serve ... In ... Rally ... POINT for Oxford ! Second service for me, same scenario... And again a third time making us win the 3rd set and game 15-12 !! Annika got the MVP title this time for her nice work at the front putting their defense in difficulty and her service spree.

Again, I think the whole team enjoyed playing against Basingstoke & Spikeos as the level of paying was high, and the fairplay was on court. I'm sure they will be up for a revenge soon ...

2 comments:

  1. thanks for the summary Chichi!
    For the second game: Yes Basingstoke won 2-1 against spikeos (which is teh mixed 3 team). The spikeos lady (Aurelie) was just windout as someone elbowed here below the lung, her wrist is fine!
    Hopefully more wins to come for Vollox!

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  2. Go Go team!!! It was awsome fun playing on Sunday. A big thank you to all.

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