Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Another step closer to stay in League 1 for the Bulls !

Last training saw us leaving with a warm and comfy feeling that we could take on Spikeos 2...

This is what happened last Sunday if you were not at Headington Girls School!!

1st Game - Oxford Bulls Vs. Spikeos 2

Very clear instructions from Maite the coach: Play it simple! Recycle the ball and keep the flow going. Don't take risks and get warm first. She put on court Tomas, Seb, Luca, Simon (with his zombie red eyes...), Hanif & Adam - again myself entering on the middles as a libero.
We got the side out immediately after the first serve from Spikeos & secured a +2 advance. Spikeos kept on going fighting the points and changed the score from us in the lead 9-8 to them being in the lead 12-11. Fine tipping from Adam & consistent block drag from our middles made us stay in the race behind Spikeos: 18-17, 20-18, and finally 22-20 when Maite decided to take the first timeout to break the routine. It worked indeed and their next serve was out - 22-21. Next serve from Luca followed by a good rally concluded by a block from Simon - 22-22. Again Luca to serve, and Spikeos recycling the ball into a free ball. Good run up from Simon but Seb decided to try a 2nd ball, picked up nicely and attacked on the outside, picked up by Luca, and well finished on with a line shot touched out from Adam - 23-22. Spikeos took their timeout at this time. It didn't affect us - and we scored the next point again - 24-22 & Set Point !!!! Next point again, we recycle the ball well, but Spikeos force us to make a mistake, and we are now at 24-23. On the next point, Adam from Spikeos strongly challenged at the net with Simon and unfortunately won - 24-24 and Sudden Death !!! Top spin serve from Spikeos picked up and attacked, Spikeos recycle the ball nicely, and we are - again - having a good rally. But this time we force one of their players to penetrate under the net - 25-24!!! Set Point!! Again!!! First attack from Spikeos picked up by Seb, Hanif to set, and Adam to attack, but recycled by Spikeos, then Luca to receive their attack, Seb to set and Adam to finish strongly with a diagonal kill: 26-24!!!
No change on the team on court.  A slightly more ectic start seing an immediate lead of Spikeos 4-0, but we piked it up very quickly, even getting in the lead 13-10(timeout from Spikeos at 11-8). Adam kept showing all his moves at the net, and the entire team looked strong with some good pickups and no panic when having to perform a disaster recovery. It probably was the turning point of the game, as we increased our lead up to 15-11, but Spikeos hadn't given up. They regathered and reduce the advance up to 18-15 and showed some good moves, and caught back up to 19-18... As mentionned in a previous report, you may know that sometimes we break under pressure. But not this time: secured serves, strong defence & decisive hits & tips lead to a secured 23-21. A couple more serves from Tomas and we had our victory.
Adam obtained the MVP title when he showed to everyone he was defintly on fire.

And for those who want to put some images on this game, I invite you to follow this link to the videos uploaded on Spikeos' website - Courtesy of Spikeos!


http://ytchannelembed.com/video.php?id=QF_jm3NgHJs&t= > Set 1

http://ytchannelembed.com/video.php?id=KVbBoFqv5ho&t= > Set 2 (Partial unfortunately...)

2nd Game - Oxford Bulls Vs. Spikeos 1

Friendly game in which we did well, even though it was not possible to beat the current runner's up of the league. 25-18, 25-21.


No comments:

Post a Comment