Semifinal #3 v Middelfart

We're going to the finals! Middelfart 2-3 HIK (23-25, 14-25, 25-22, 25-15, 13-15)

Saturday night's game was a great match, and had quite a few memorable moments. After going up 2-0 in sets, I think we took Middelfart for granted a bit, but they showed they had the ability to come back from deficits also. The first set started off well for us and was close the entire way. We got some good blocks that gave us some critical points on our own serve, which ended up winning the set for us. The second and fourth sets were both similar; midway through each there were a few good plays and some mistakes that made the set all but won early on.

The third set appeared to be of the same mould, but we chipped away at Middelfart's lead slowly, earning a point or two each time we sided out. We tied up the game around 21, but Middelfart managed to earn a few counterattacks to take the set. If we had lost that set badly and the fourth as well, who knows what our mental state would have been, so even though we didn't end up winning the third, the comeback was still very important for us. I think despite our getting hammered in the fourth we managed to bounce back in the critical fifth set because of our play in the third.

There were some great plays from everyone, including our "four leaf clover" of blockers Fleming, Jesper, Joakim, and Kesse (who is now Norwegian apparently). Some other things of note from the game:
•The most memorable person from the night may have been the scorekeeping secretary, who was absolutely wasted. You could smell the booze when you walked past the table, and he was wisely "substituted" after he couldn't work both the flip scoreboard and the electronic one simultaneously.
•The most memorable play of the night (which wasn't the last point, which ended with a missed serve) was probably a ball Niels hit from the outside that nailed the libero in the face. He laid on the ground for a couple minutes but luckily was okay and able to continue.
•The crowd at Lillebæltshallen was pretty hostile. It was most obvious when they were yelling at the ref (which isn't anything new), but apparently they were getting impatient with their own players as well, which is a little surprising to me.
•Our own crowd of traveling fans was great again. They were loud and made the atmosphere a great one to play in. I'm looking forward to seeing even more for the championship games.
•We beat Middelfart at home two times in five days after they hadn't dropped a home match in six months.

The best news coming out of the semifinals is the feeling on the team that we still have a couple areas where we can improve, which will give us focus for the last week of practice. We're happy with what we've done, but we're not satisfied, an important distinction that affects our attitude towards the finals.

And even though we scored a victory in the last meeting with Marienlyst we are not taking anything for granted. On paper Marienlyst has to be the favorite, but as they say, games aren't won on paper. Marienlyst is (and has been) the consensus pick to win it all, and Aalborg is the team that came from nowhere (sitting 5th in the table at the end of January) to make it to the finals. I think we've managed to provide some of the biggest surprises of the season in the Elitedivision, and certainly now is not the time to stop.