Ladies 1 finish the season in style despite their first loss in two seasons

Due to some of our players being away this weekend, we had a few guest players to make up the team – thank you to Klaudia, Sam and Karolina for helping out today!

Oxford 1 v Maidenhead

Our first game was against Maidenhead and we were quietly confident about beating them as we did the first 2 times we played them this season. However, it turned out that we needed the first set to find our feet and get used to playing together. Combined with Maidenhead's solid defense, this meant we were trailing behind from the beginning. At some point Maidenhead were leading by 10 points so we did well to come back with a bit more strength to reduce their lead to 4 points but they still took the set 25:21.

We started the second set equally tentative and found ourselves 7 points down at 18:11. At this point Maidenhead started struggling with their receive and 14 (!) consecutive serves later, we took the second set 25:18.

Unfortunately we didn't quite manage to carry the momentum over to the third set, which meant Maidenhead again got the early lead. We did put up a good fight towards the end of the set, swapping match points for a bit but Maidenhead kept the upper hand and took the set 18:16. MVP Annika (for the 14 serves…).

Spikeos v Oxford 1

We went straight into the second game against Spikeos. We started a little slow matching each other point for point. At 8–8 however, we took control and started getting ahead. Spikeos tried to get level but couldn't cope with Maïté's serving – her 10 consecutive serves took us all the way to the end of the set, which we won 25:13.

In the second set we didn't manage to get that vital lead and the whole set was fairly level. Spikeos got away right at the end and took the set 26:24.

We knew we had to put the pressure on from the beginning in the third set and everything finally came together and a 5-point service run from Nela at 8:5 gave us the advantage and confidence we needed to finish it off 15:7. MVP Annika (still for the previous game's 14 serves I think :)…).

Spikeos v Maidenhead

Maidenhead and Spikeos also had a great three-set game – it looked like Spikeos were always just that little bit ahead but Maidenhead pulled it off in a very close third set, having defended a match point, to win 2:1.

Two really enjoyable games, despite our first loss in two seasons! Well played everybody, especially our guest players – we couldn't have done it without them!