Match Report

Oxford M2 vs Anglia Ruskin

Date:
14 Oct 2009
Location:
Kelsey Kerridge, Cambridge
Result:
2-3 (21-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-16, 7-15)
Players:
Bartek (Setter), Andrei (Opposite), Sven, Max (Middles), Milos, Kuba (Outsides)

Comments

Despite a Blues squad of 25 players for this season, M2 were at one point on Tuesday down to 4 players for the following day's opening fixture, owing to a combination of work and the dreaded freshers' flu. Finally, after being threatened with having funding cut and not having a team next year, and having considered starting Rowan with his broken thumb, sufficient players were found. Anglia Ruskin were arguably the strongest team in the division last year, and with M2 taking only six players, they could be forgiven for not expecting an easy match.

However, Ruskin were missing one or two of their best players, and after doing a reconnaissance job in the warm-up Rowan, coach for the day, confidently announced to the team that they had every chance of taking something out of the game. Despite both teams appearing fairly evenly matched in ability, Ruskin were louder and more confident and went on to take the first set 25-21. M2 started the second set much brighter, and forced a time-out leading 12-7. The time-out clearly disrupted their rhythm, as Ruskin took 6 points in a row. An Oxford time-out did little to stop Ruskin's flow, as they pushed on to 20-15 before taking the set 25-18.

You might expect that morale would have been steadily dropping throughout the opening two sets, but in fact the frustration of dropping both sets against a team they knew they could beat served only to energise the team. The team-talk was confident and positive, and setter Bartek, clearly not enjoying being too far away from his brother, suggested switching outsides Milos and Kuba. This proved to be an astute move, as M2 raced out of the blocks, forcing a Ruskin time-out at 11-6. This time the time-out did nothing to stop the momentum as they pushed on to take the set 25-20. The team were now brimming with confidence, and bounced back on to court with eyes firmly set on taking the match to a final set. By this point, Bartek was connecting nicely with the middles, with both Max and Sven making some spectacular kills. Kuba was providing a consistent swing option and Andrei showing good awareness with a number of well-placed tips and volleys and the noise M2 were making was clearly compounding the home side's frustration. Such was Oxford's dominance in the 3rd and 4th sets that not a single time-out was necessary, and they saw out the set after a 5-point run with Milos on serve to take it 25-16.

The fifth set started out nervously, with both sides initially struggling to put together a run of points. With the scores locked at 6-6 Ruskin's full complement of subs versus Oxford's complement of no subs perhaps made a difference as fatigue kicked in. It didn't help that Ruskin's big jump-serving serve specialist chose this point to make more than one serve in a row for the first time in the match. It took two time-outs to finally stop him and bring the score to 11-7. Unfortunately, M2's serve-receive had fallen to bits as tightness and maybe a bit of nerves took their toll. Ruskin saw the set out without dropping another point to take the match 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 16-25, 15-7. A greatly disappointing end having fought their way back into it, but an admirable performance with only 6 players with many positives to take from the first fixture of the year!

Report by Rowan

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