NVL Men - Oxford Students (A) Match Report 2009-10

Tendring V.C. 3 – 0 Oxford Students

25-18, 25-14,25-17

Report by Alex Porter

Tendring started this weekend’s NVL matches against fellow league title contenders Oxford Students, with both team joint top of the table having played 5 and won 5 but Oxford having drop considerably more sets than Tendring.

Tendring started well with Jamie Everett linking well with Nick Davies to give Tendring a 2-0 lead, only for J. Everett to serve straight into the net. At 10-5 to Tendring, Oxford was force to call a time out to try and stem the flow of attack. Tendring was clearly demonstrating their power with attacks coming Neil Master, Aaron Jones and Stuart Dove. Tendring started to relax which allowed Oxford to score an ace and after a long rally Seb Widlarz tried to hit one through the back wall, a few crack were starting to appear in Tendring’s game play. Errors were made by both teams but Tendring kept ticking over the points with the help of some brilliant defence by Masters and Liam Chinnery which allow Dove to convert some magically back court attacks. Davies spread the play around which made life very difficult for Oxford. Suddenly Oxford collapsed and before Tendring knew it the set was over 25-18.

Set 2

Widlarz started well with 1 kill and 2 good serves to give Tendring an early 3-1 lead. Dove used his height to hit over the top of the Oxford block. Tendring’s defence was working hard which frustrated the Oxford hitters forcing them to try different things. At 8-6 the game was balance but an amazing back court attack by Masters against a 3 man block gave Tendring the push they needed. James Chapman came on for J. Everett to give the middle a bit more speed. This opened the block up for the outside hitters, allowing Dove to kill 2 in a row. Dove followed this up with a couple of powerful serves which gave Tendring set point. Oxford just couldn’t handle the serve and just got the ball back over. Davies went to Widlarz on a pipe who smashed the ball down to win the set.

Set 3

The Dove show started from point one, the set went as follows. Dove kill, Dove block, Dove Kill, Dove service error, Dove Kill. Jones then killed the ball on the first attempt. At 6-4 Tendring’s defence kept their cool with the ball crossing the net 3 times until Widlarz nailed a ball down the line. This was followed up with a cheaky tip by the big Polish man. Chapman’s attack in the middle keep the Oxford blockers honest as they had started to creep to the outsides. Masters then missed a line shot by inches and then a cross court shot by a similar margin which forced coach Porter to bring Masters back into the real world but having a quite word in his ear. Master replied with a tip just over the top of the block, leaving 4 Oxford players standing still. At 16-11 Tendring dropped down a gear and let the game cruise,  each team scoring point for point with Dove and Masters scoring most of Tendrings.

MVP: Neil Masters