Solent Men's National League Volleyball team suffered mixed fortunes in their National League double-header in Bristol.

They beat Whitefield 3-0 with a solid performance but then found Oxford Student's hitters too strong and ended up on the wrong end of the same scoreline.

Solent have been struggling for form this season with players missing for key matches, and that was a similar story at the weekend

Against Whitefield the first set was very close. Solent were unable to string their play together for long enough to see off their opponents.

Solent managed to find some form when it counted and took the set 25-21 on the serving of Neal Pattenden.

The second set was a very similar story.

Solent cancelled out a lot of their advantage with errors and the pressure was on at 24-24.

The south coast side managed to steady their nerves with a couple of time-outs, and this time it was Ian Coombs who put in the serves to give Solent the set 27-25.

Whitefield refused to give up hope and the third set scoring remained neck and neck.

Andy Mackay and Inaki Sam-aniego showed moments of inspiration with their hitting but the errors were still there in the Solent game.

Andy Ritchie came up with a couple of key blocks.

This time Solent gave themselves some breathing space eventually taking the set 25-19 for a 3-0 win.

Second opponents Oxford Stu-dents were a tougher proposition.

They had a lot of power in their attack and Solent did well to raise their game in the first set.

The key was to disrupt the Oxford game with good serving.

Solent managed this and took an 18-14 lead.

Their defending was, at times inspired, and this made for some great rallies.

Oxford fought back hard though and levelled the scores at 23-23.

The game suddenly got heated and the referee was feeling the pressure on his decisions.

In the end, Solent lacked the mental strength to pull off the first set, and they succombed 28-26 after a couple of key serving errors.

In the second set Oxford got into their stride pretty quickly.

Solent gave away a few runs of points and trailed 16-8.

Despite the deficit, they battled hard but the Oxford attack proved too much to handle.

The student side took the set 25-17 for a 2-0 lead.

To their credit Solent did not let their heads drop.

The third set was just as much of a struggle against a very competent Oxford attack.

Neal Pattenden worked hard as setter to try and give his hitters some options, and the Solent attitude was still positive.

Solent were still in touch with the score at 10-10 but as Oxford applied more pressure the cracks started to reappear.

Frustration crept into the Solent game and the heads finally dropped.

After a valiant effort , they went down 25-18 for a 3-0 scoreline that was flattering to their opponents.