Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Oxford Mens 2 - Christmas before Christmas !

Last Sunday the Oxford Mens 2 team played in Headington against Reading Aces & Didcot. This is what happened...

1st Game - Oxford Vs Didcot


Second encounter of the year against Didcot and we knew they would be annoying because experienced. For the occasion, Maite accepted to be our bench coach - job she did very well! The initial 6 on court were Seb, Adam, David, Simonm, Hussain & myself. A very quick start from us ahead up to 5-1 and it was the first timeout from Didcot... Good coverage, good intensity of play, strong attacks, good blocking... In short, nothing to say up to 16-5. And then, something happened... Something... Odd... Adam hit a nice diagonal and managed to get the Fire Alarm started... So everyone went outside and we waited until the caretaker sorted the issue. And this break got rid of our concentration. Didcot scored 7 points in a row, followed by another 4 after, catching back on us. Maite took our first timeout when we were in the lead only by 18-16. A good speech, a good scream, and a good adrenaline rush - we scored the other 7 points needed and won the first set 25-19.
The second set was quite different. Similar start to the first for us - even stronger I would say. 4 services in a row from Seb, 1 from Adam and 10 from Dave... At this point we are ahead 18-4 and dan has been swapped with me at 15-4... A bit of a slwo down in the end but no real difficulty coming from the opponents and we won the second set 25-12.
Adam got the MVP for this game for his strong and smart hits through the blocks !

2nd Game - Oxford Vs Reading


First encounter against Reading and they showed some serious spiking during the warm up, especially their Nb 8 NVL. But we all know the truth... A strong spike is only strong when it goes through the block !!
Anyway, Maite put on court Seb, Adam, David, Dan, Mike & Simon. Quite a tight start this time, rreading giving a bit more defense than Didcot on the first 20 points scored: 10-10. The kick we needed came from the few services from the awesome Adam and we were clearly ahead by +7: 18-11. The rest of the set was then very quick and clear: 25-15. Plus the fact that Oxford was on the HIGH !!
Second set starting with Simon, Seb, Adam,, Daid, Mike & myself, and we produced some very good volleyball. The first half of the set we were scoring twice when Reading was scoring once. And the second part saw us even stronger. At 11-4 Hussain replaced Adam, followed soon at 15-6 by Dan coming to replace Simon whose back was hurting a bit... Thumb up for Hussain who saved twice in the same rallye 2 strong hits of their Nb. 8 - Rallye finished by myself with a strong hit ... :) And we had a clean victory 25-9 on the second set.
Again, Adam got the MVP for this game - Strong & precise hits... Again...




The conclusion of these 2 games is that we are ahead for the Christmas Break even if Spikeos Mens 2 is right behind us... The second half of the season will be interesting !!

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