In their second fixture of the season the blues faced the dark side (Oxford) in the first of 3 regular fixtures this year (the others being the league match away at Oxford and the Varsity match which will be held in Cambridge this year). Even though Oxford had dispatched their first two league opponents 3:0 Cambridge had reason to be confident having only lost 1 out of the last 22 sets against Oxford. Little did the blues know that this match would be one for the history books. With a full squad at his disposal coach Jacquet sent out Chris Wymant setting, Marco Sampaio hitting opposite, Jonas Neher and Matthias Beestermoeller through the middle, and Sunny Thatong and Martin Niederste-Ostholt (captain) filling the power hitting spots. Chris, Matthias, and Sunny made their blues debuts here. Cambridge got into the match very well and pulled away with a convincing lead early in the set. With superior passing, blocking, hitting and uncharacteristically few service errors from the light blues Oxford stood little chance. Towards the end of the set Jacquet brought on Nick Stone-Villani as opposite and Mike Hannon as setter and Cambridge closed out the set 25:14. The second set saw some errors creeping into the Cambridge game and with Oxford not wanting to lie down and take a beating the contest was much closer. However, a well used time-out brought the light blues back on track and they were able to pull away from a knotted 16:16 to a convincing 25:18 victory. The Cambridge express kept on rolling through the third set and with the Oxford game almost completely collapsing Cambridge ran its bench and cruised to a 25:8 victory (its highest victory over an Oxford side since the introduction of rally point scoring!). Congratulations especially go to Matthias who in his first appearance for the blues already put his name in the record books with a stunning 86% kill percentage, the 3rd highest for a middle hitter in the club's history (tied with Jonas). Martin is now tied with Andy Lynn and Dan Escott for 3rd highest kill percentage (83%) for outsides and opposites in the club.
Congratulations to the team for their massive improvement over last week's game at Nottingham.
MVP: Martin Niederste-Ostholt
Men's blues match highlights now on YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O6xzAAN_8U Report by Jon Clarke
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