Life and Volleyball, or something like that...: February 2010

Well, it's been a while since I last checked in, and for that I apologize. But other than the two championship weekends not much has really happened. We had three routine wins against teams from the bottom of the barrel of the elite division which really isn't worth reporting unless we played rock, paper, scissors for the match instead of actually playing volleyball. But the possibility of winning two championships in a span of two weeks? It doesn't get any better than that!

January 24th was the date of the Pokal Finale in Idraetspark in Odense. This building is practically our home away from home. We practice there twice a week so we were feeling really good about taking the top honors. I felt like we had a decent week of practice leading up to the final, not great, but not terrible. We didn't have any substantial injuries or anything either so again, our spirits were high. We even set up the Teraflex floor the night before as a team so we were able to get a feel for the transformation our familiar setting was undergoing. Game day came and we went early to watch the women's championship match. The women's team from Odense won 3-0. The gym was crowded with at least 2,000 in attendance. It is a really special game. So the time came where it was our turn to go out and get one of our early season goals. Set 1 went as smooth as possible we took control early and held for a 25-22 first set win. The second set went even smoother. They made tons of errors and we got out to a really big lead. I think we were up by more than ten after 15 points. I think the game was going so much easier than we thought we took our foot off the accelerator and started to relax. Gentofte looked like they were just going to give us the medal Set two we won 25-12, we were up for so long we definitely lost that killer instinct and settled into thinking that Gentofte was going to lose and we didn't have to earn it. Game three we wen't down early and expected Gentofte to make a ton of mistakes like the first two sets but that never happened. We never recovered from the early deficit and dropped game 3. Game 4 you could almost feel the momentum switch and we got really tight. We started playing safe not trying to make errors and that is not a way to play. It only compounds the problem. Again we got down early made a late rally but couldn't close the gap and again we failed to even get to 20 points. And on to a 5th set. In a shortened game anything can happen so it is really important to get out to an early lead. That is just what we did. We rushed out to a 7-5 lead one point away from the side switch. We failed on three straight side out attmpts to get to eight and they got the switch first. Gentofte played a pretty good fifth set but I have to think that we lost instead of them beating us. After 7-8 we had a free ball hit the ground, a miscommunicated float serve ace down the middle, and a middle trying to set a dig when the setter was right behind and getting a double. Can't do that after 8 in a championship 5th set. But even after all this we still were given another chance. At 14-13 Gentofte's Jonas Napier hit a ball off of our block and the refs failed to see it so they awarded us the point. Now we should have lost right there but what can you do? Either way now its 14-14. Nelly hit a jump float that they overpassed and I crushed to give us match point. What a crazy turn of events! I for sure at this moment though that we were going to win. Next point was theirs however to tie it back up at 15-15. Now I'm not entirely sure about the exact sequence of points for the rest of the way, but what I do recall is a down ref who decided to take it upon himself to be in the spot light. Setter in position 6, puts me in position 3 where I am stacked near the net where I have to be to the left of the middle blocker and in front of the setter. We are in black on the left as shown below.

As you can see, it is really close. But my feet are in front of the setters just before contact. This is the closest we could get it from the video. But regardless, it is so close that if you have to have a debate about who is right is a joke. You simply can't make this call in a 5th set beyond 15 points of a championship. You just can't. That is like calling a foul in basketball with .02 left on the clock on an inbounds play of a tied game. It doesn't happen? Why? Because it shouldn't happen and everyone knows that. Ok, well they missed the touch call so we should have already lost so I guess we are even now so it wasn't time to blow up completely the game wasn't over yet. We side out to tie it back up at 16. Looks like this is going to be an epic battle now for the championship. They side out right back to go up 17-16. Routine pass, great set, I hit the ball as hard as I can for the line it hits the block goes right over my shoulder and out of bounds. Game again tied at 17 all. I am on my way back to serve when I look over my shoulder and see that the down ref, same idiot again, says that the ball touched me on the way out. The ball was 6 inches away from me at least I did not touch the ball. I watched it go right over my shoulder and out. The one time in Denmark we have line judges and some down ref decides to over rule everyone. The up official signaled touch and awarded Gentofte the point and championship point! Sad to see the officials blow 3 calls in the end of a fifth set! This picture explains it all:

It was a tough way to go out. What a game it was. It had a little of just about everything. But who knows how great it really could have been if we were allowed to continue to play? I did somehow manage to get the pokalfighter award which is the game ball for the match. Thought about punting the golden volleyball into the stands, but that thought quickly faded. Here are a few more of the pictures that appeared in the paper:

The good times!

Hitting the outside ball

The good thing about playing another championship the following week was that we had a chance to redeem ourselves. We boarded the bus at 6am on the following week for a nice long 12 hour bus ride to Sollentuna which is a suburb of Stockholm. This championship weekend was a bit different though. It was between 4 teams and it was a round robin. So basically the team with the best record after playing the three matches would win. We came into Sollentuna really wanting to get that championship monkey off of our backs. The first match was against Sollentuna the hosting team. They had just unveiled their new home court a few weeks before so it was a nice championship venue. This gym actually had a higher percentage of doors locked than the Marienlyst Center! You needed a microchip to get into the locker room! We came out pretty flat lost game one playing terribly. However after we settled in we played much better and Sollentuna on the other hand played really poorly so we won the next three sets. Taking it 3-1.

The following day we met Falkenberg. They had lost the night before in 5 to Middelfart so they needed to win this match. We came out strong with a little extra intensity with Joakim on the court. He played for Falkenberg the year before and they kind of treated him unfairly so he was really ready to go and crush them. We came out pretty strong winning the first two sets relatively easily. Our middles started going off and that was the difference for us. We did have a slight lapse and dropped game three but we came back strong and took game 4 for a 3-1 win again. Middelfart won as well after us so it came down to a Danish final winner take all.

First set we came out really hard and played quite possibly our best ball all year. We could do no wrong. Wherever Middelfart hit the ball we were right there. It was a beating and we won 25-12. Second set we were cruising again but we had a passing break down in the middle of the set and never recovered. Dropped the second set. Third set we came back strong again and battled back and forth until we finally broke them and took the set. Set 4, again passing break down middle of the way through and Middelfart looked to be shaking some of their tiredness and were gaining confidence. They held on and took the 4th set. So again to the 5th and decisive set. Jordan started serving and boom first serve ace. Good start. I think we got another two more points and we started up 3-1. We had some troubles and lost the lead and we were down 7-5, the other side of the score from the last championship. But the same thing happened but this time in our favor we got the next 3 points for the switch put us up 8-7. From here we scored more points and took a good sized lead to match point 14-11. First match point I got the ball took a hard swing but it was dug and they ended up scrapping for the point. 14-12. Next play we went to the middle and it sailed out, 14-13. Uh oh, time out us. This is getting interesting! We were in one of our best attacking rotations to so they surely couldn't stop us three times in a row? I got the last set and crushed it down the line off the liberos knee and into the stands and everyone rushed the court! Here is the final point and some other pictures from the weekend: