The Bulls' Diaries - A series of unfortunate events...

It is easy to write when we win but not so easy when we lose.

However each match is important so here is a short summary of what happened yesterday in Headington.

1st Game - Spikeos 1 Vs. Oxford Bulls

The team on court was Lucian, Seb, Luke, Anders, Marco & Dan (+ me  libero). Even though we had warmed up decently, it was not enough to contain a strong & stable Spikeos & the first set was not really good as we finished 25-12 in 20 minutes. However we had gathered momentum & started the second set in a much better situation. For this time Marco was replaced by David. We kept the score tight  until 18-18 but then we collapsed & a succession of mistakes sent Spikeos to the victory 25-20.

Luke got the MVP title for this game. In hindsight, we could say that everything was OK in our game but not much more than just OK & caused us to make more mistakes than our opponents.

2nd Game - Farnborough Vipers Vs. Oxford Bulls

We came on court with the frustration of losing the previous game so we had motivation. The team on court was Lucian, Peter, Luke, Anders, Simon & Dan (+ me, again...). Unfortunately Farnborough took straight away a comfortable advance (11-5). We regrouped & regained confidence, starting to block a little bit more but it just did not work as intended. At 18-13, our coaches took a timeout in order to break the momentum. It worked, but only for a few points. And following from good choices made by their setter & smart attacks Farnborough took the 1st set 25-20.

More frustration & will to win was brought on court. We felt that we were defending ourselves well but we were lacking finish. The whole set was much tighter & both team showed good spirit in playing. First timeout from us was when Farnborough was in the lead 14-11 but then they took a timeout at 16-16. Then they were up again 22-19 but we caught back 22-22. Then we took the lead 23-22. They had more faith than us (even though we had the 1st attacks) scored 3 points in a row, giving them the 2nd set 25-23.

I got the MVP title (hence why I am writing today) for rolling on the floor regularly. And I guess our coaches could say that the conclusion was the same & that we were lacking finish. We have one more fixture to play - next Sunday - and we are fearing that we will have to play the relegation triangular in May. Even worse, we are not far from the straight relegation zone...  Let's just not go there !