Game v Aarhus ASV

We went down to Aarhus yesterday for a special Thursday edition match. I woke up at noon, learned/practiced some Danish, and watched some volley videos online (all in all, a pretty standard day). It was a short trip down, and the hall for ASV is attached to the football stadium and a basketball hall as well. The volleyball hall though is made from the leftover parts of a Copenhagen train station, which made it big, loud, and pretty interesting. Also interesting was the dolphin mascot that ASV had. He didn't do much, just kind of sat in the stands and made reactions to plays and calls, but every now and then the guy went up behind a pillar and drank some beer. Can't blame him, dolphins must get really thirsty when they're on land for so long.

We were without Goat, who has a sore back, so there were some questions before the match even started. Mikkel warmed up with the team, and I actually thought he might start, but Morten Smith ended up getting the call. I didn't start, but came in around 20-18 as part of a double sub with Joakim for Kesse and Morten. This was an interesting tactic, and I wouldn't be surprised if the coaches use it more. Morten and I are evenly matched, and though Joakim hasn't been putting balls away as well as Kesse, he blocks well, so I could see this happening a lot more in close matches when we need a spark or some firepower, but no one is playing badly enough to take out. I ended up finishing the first set (we didn't rotate enough for me to come out) and we won 25-22.

The second set saw Morten start again, and ASV came out better this set as well, and actually had the lead early on. They continued to miss a lot of serves (a common theme on the night for them) which gave us easy sideout points. We opened up a lead of about 5 points though, and I went in around 15-10 in a double sub again. There was one play where Dennis was set by me or someone else about 4 consecutive times, and he was blocked or dug. It was a long rally, but we got the point and it was a good momentum boost. I came out when I was going front row, and went back in around 20-15. This time I was in there was a play where a ball was passed to position 3/4 so I was at a full run and then tossed it back to Nils, and Fleming came down on me pretty hard and my back cracked. Its pretty sore now, but we have tomorrow off, so hopefully it gets better. They made a small run of about 3 points, but we sided out after a timeout and got back on track and won the set handily, 25-20.

In the third ASV made it a game, and were leading by up to 3 points at one time. They dug a couple balls from us and had a few good swings out of the middle. I came in at around 14-15 for Morten and tried to pick us up. We had a huge mismatch in our favor when the other setter was front row, so for those 3 rotations I just put it outside, and we won nearly every ball, which got us some confidence and momentum. Morten Smith had a few good blocks, and in the last 5 points of the match we had some great counter attacking while Dennis was serving, which was huge for us. The ref missed a pretty obvious ball that was in from the other middle, but we earned the next point with a great dig by Jonas, a good save/set from Morten Smith and a put-away by Nils to put us up 24-22. They sided out the next ball, and I knew I was going to set Nils out of reception, since had been killing them on the outside. Perfect pass and I put it out for him, game over.

We were definitely the better side, and it showed in the long rallies. There are certain plays (usually longer rallies) that can change the momentum of a game, and I think we won every single one of those points. When you can consistently win big points, you will win the match, and can feel very satisfied with the results. That said, this was a much-needed win for us. Our form in practice this week was sub-par (mainly due to injuries and people missing), and with Goat out we needed a convincing win to solidify our position in the table and raise morale after getting killed by Marienlyst. No one expects us to beat Marienlyst, but if we can take care of business against the lower teams, we can finish top 4.