Monday, September 28, 2015

Oxford ladies in their first NVL div 2 match


Our Oxford Ladies 1 team gained promotion last season from NVL division 3 to division 2. Their first match in the new division was New Forest ladies - match report from Amra below.

We went yesterday to New Forest (New Milton) to play NF ladies.
Some of the team enjoyed a seaside stroll after the match
We were a squad of six (Annika, Fede, Nela, Sonia, Mirjam, Amra) accompanied by our coaches Jon and Neil. It was the first match of the season in the 2nd division and the feelings were mixed before the match - we didn't know what to expect.

In the first set we were trying to catch up with their very fast game and especially strong serves, but then we found our game, and scored a couple of very good lines (by Fede and Mirjam) in the second set. Despite the strong improvement from Oxford, New Forest also took the second set.

The third set was really close with some good tips from Sonia and much better defence from the whole team. Unfortunately that wasn't enough for a win.

Overall, it was a very tough match. NF ladies have a couple of experienced players and also some very strong hitters, but what decided the game was their strong serves. I also have to say that the sports hall was an extra challenge for defenders, with its low ceiling - which we kept hitting!
We missed a bit of consistency in our game, but we have a chance to improve next Sunday when we play our second match against Essex Trinity.

Fede won MVP.

Written by Amra.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Announcing Oxford Wolves!

OVC is pleased to announce formation of our newest team: the Oxford Wolves! The Wolves are our junior team and will be playing in the BVA league (ladies division 2). We already have 4 boys and 2 girls committed to playing in the team, which will be coached by Andrey, Jon and Neil. Thank you to Andrey for managing and organizing the Wolves! We look forward to hearing more about their first season!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Oxford Vollox in preliminary cup game thriller

A team of 7 players (Martijn, Jon, Rune, Gareth, Neil, Adam and Gerard) headed to Birmingham for the preliminary round of the National cup. Wombourne VC was the opponent hosting the game. A really organised team of 12 players plus 3 officials welcomed us with a match day programme available for the supporters and visitors on the day (see pic!).

The game started and Oxford played well, despite having only 1 training earlier that week after the summer break. At 24:13 the team relaxed a little and saw the opposition winning 5 points in a row to finally stop at 25:18 for Oxford.

The second set started with confidence but we realised quickly that Wombourne had more potential than originally thought. At 20:20 Oxford started to make few mistakes and therefore couldn't keep up, losing the second set 22:25.

For the third set, despite the stamina level starting to drop, we held the set well making the technical time-out 16:15. But that time-out did not work well for us and we let the opponents take a 2-point lead that we couldn't recover.

For the fourth set, the Coach decided to switch 2 players around which was beneficial, some good hits and blocks allowed us to be again in front at the technical time-out, but this time we held strong and got back the set 25:22.

Final/deciding set: Having 12 players did not help Wombourne too much because they only used 8 of them for all 5 sets, which did not favour their energy/focus level. At 5-5 Rune took charge of the serving which he did not want to quit, supported by some great pick ups, strong blocking, and  a great finish by Vollox to finally win 15-5 - securing the first win of the season!

MVP for the game Jon Williams

Written by Gerard

Sunday, September 6, 2015

All set for the new season!!!

Our new indoor season is starting again next week! Club members, make sure you check your e-mails and the relevant website pages for up-to-date info on trainings, fees and so on.