Match Report

Oxford WNVL vs City of Bristol

Date:
11 Oct 2009
Location:
Bath University Founders Hall
Result:
2-3 (25-20, 22-25, 25-16, 15-25, 12-15)
MVP:
Jana Orszaghova
Players:
Sarah (setter), Kath (opposite), Claire, Jovana, Jana (outside), Sam, Erica (middle), Jenna (libero) & Ludo (coach)

Comments

A disappointingly under-par performance saw Oxford lose to City of Bristol in five sets.

Oxford had a weak start to the first set, but eventually picked themselves up with some good serving and strong attacks seeing us win the set 25-20.

Our concentration then seemed to falter dramatically in the second. Our serve-receive dipped severely, and far too many of our attacks went in the net or straight out, allowing City of Bristol to take the set 22-25 through our mistakes, rather than their own brilliance.

A more determined Oxford side took to the court for the third set and much stronger serves, good defence, and accurate attacks lead to a fairly easy win of 25-16 with City of Bristol never really in the set.

Unfortunately, however, rather than capitalising on this lead, Oxford's concentration once again let us down in the fourth set, with our passing weakening again and very poor teamwork and court attitude taking their toll and allowing City of Bristol back in the game, taking the set 15-25.

The deciding fifth was a very close-run set but while City of Bristol pulled up their level of play, we seemed keen to hand the match to them on a plate. Our high number of serve errors, in particular, proved costly as City of Bristol closed out the set, and the match, at 12-15.

This was a really disappointing performance by Oxford, who never really kicked into gear at the level we know we are capable of. The entire team appeared to be having a bad day, resulting in a loss to a team that did not have any particularly strong attacks but were simply very good at scrambling the ball back to us and waiting for us to make a mistake, which we seemed inevitably to do.

Much better basic skills, teamwork and communication, and a will to win are required if we want to successfully progress to Div 2 at the end of this season. Let's make sure we win the return leg against this team!

Report by Sam Vermaak

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