In their first trip to Oxford this year the Blues faced Oxford Brookes. For the second time this season Cambridge was plagued by players being unavailable due to illness or other pressing engagements. Making the journey in a record 1 hour 37 minutes Cambridge had ample time to warm up and scout the opposition. Jacquet sent Beestermoeller and Neher out as middles, Sampaio hitting opposite and Lai and Niederste-Ostholt swingin through four. Nick Stone-Villani made his setting debut for the Blues and Andreas Werner rounded out the side as libero. Aggressive serves and good attacks put Cambridge in front comfortably by 11 points. Even a six point service run by Brooks while the Cambridge middles tried to adjust to their new setter didn't faze the Blues. After winning the first set so convincingly the Blues planned on just cruising on. However, Brooks didn't seem to like that plan. Sending out the same six (at least in appearance) Brooks started making accurate passes and aggressive attacks. Completely taken aback by this the Cambridge pass and defense crumbled. After a time-out and finding themselves down 9:17 the Blues decided to step up to the challenge. Concentrating on the basics of the game and cutting out some of the more atrocious errors Cambridge slowly came back and with some luck won 26:24. The final set was more like the first with a concentrated and determined Cambridge side winning 25:11.
MVP: Martin Niederste-Ostholt Report by Jean Jacquet
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