Match Report

Oxford MNVL vs Team Northumbria

Date:
11 Dec 2010
Location:
Iffley Sports Hall, Oxford
Result:
3-2 (25-14, 23-25, 25-16, 20-25, 15-13)
MVP:
Martijn Stroo
Players:
Martijn Stroo, Richard White, Gabriele Devita (outsides), Marcin Samoluk (opposite), Paul Swift, Scott Hale (middles), Jon Williams (libero), Andrew White (serve specialist), Mike D'Angeli, Han-Ru Zhou (setters)

Comments

"

We knew two things about Team Northumbria before the match – they had a similar set of results to us (played seven, won 3; we’d played 7, won 4) and their last two matches had been five-setters. Well, we couldn’t say we hadn’t been warned.

Northumbria arrived slightly late, since they’d dropped by St. Greg’s for a quick look-see. In all fairness, they had travelled down from Northumbria (way way North – even more Northern than that) that very, so they might have been a bit dozy from lack of sleep. Whatever the cause, they were slow to get started in the warm-up and in the first set. Taking full advantage of this we took a comfortable win, 25-14.

In the second set, despite Mike’s warnings, we allowed Northumbria to take the lead. Things looked bad when Gabri tripped and slightly pulled his ankle (he’d already damaged a thumb in the first set, but man of iron that he is, no-one found about that until after the match). Rich came in for Gabri, and then in an attempt to change the faltering dynamic, Han-Ru came in for Mike. Neither availed and we went down 25-23.

The third set was like the clock going backwards. Our serve receive improved and our hitters were clinical. Northumbria’s middles did successfully shut down one of our middles by excellent blocking, but this did allow our outsides to go one-to-one with the blocker, some consolation. A comfortable victory (25-16) was followed, however, as night follows day, by a close loss in the fourth (20-25). Frustration.

In the fifth emotions were running high. Poor blocking saw us slip behind 7-4, but we struggled back to lead at turnover, 8-7. It was tight as a snake at feeding-time all the way up to where we were poised on a scalpel’s edge advantage, 14-13. Our serve went in *breathe*, they didn’t shank it *shame*, it was set to four, with our middle trailing desperately after it *damnation* and Marcin stuffed it straight down *****.

"

Report by Paul

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