My Apartment

So that's what my apartment looks like. Pretty clean right now, which is easy when you don't have a lot of stuff. I still don't have a couch, but at least I have two chairs that are pretty comfortable, in addition to the dining table chairs. The TV is big, and cable is free, but most of the shows in English are quality programming like 90210, Reba, and some 80's cop show set in Hawaii. I read a lot.

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.

Game v Marienlyst

We played Marienlyst last Saturday, and they are easily the best team in the country. They have 2 North Americans (setter and opposite) and a Brazilian OH (Santos). The dude is amazing. He was player of the year last year, is about 6-0 and bounces for his height like no one I've ever seen. He hit the ceiling several times during warm ups. Oh, and he passes nails.

I got the start, but we started off passing pretty shakily, with at least 3 or 4 overpasses from easy floats. We settled down and I connected with Goat (the middle) pretty well, but we were just too far behind at that point. Against a team like Marienlyst, you just can't concede easy points.

The second set started out well for us, a couple good kills from Goat allowed me to open up some 1 v 1 with my outsides, but I was hesitant to use my opposite too much when he was matched up v Santos. He won a couple balls but not enough to give me confidence to set him, especially when he was out of the backrow. This was something I should have adjusted to, and found a way to get him more sets. Also, we had our 4th outside in, Joakim wasn't doing well, and Tue got blocked a couple times, making me feel like I didn't have many options. I ended up running a lot of backrows with Dennis as a result, who I connected with well. We were neck-in-neck until about 20, but they just pulled away with some great counter-attacking. Their block is so big that they were able to get a lot up off touches or channeling the ball to defenders. There was a stoppage in the game for about 10 minutes when two players on the other side ran into each other, and ended up bleeding from their heads all over the court. The outside had to come out, and I felt optimistic that we could take a set off them with their 3rd outside playing and the score at 18-19, but we couldn't pull it off.

The third set saw the coaches switch the opposite to OH so I could get him more balls, which was probably a good move, and should have made a difference, but our form in the last set was appalling. Poor passing, me missing connections with Fleming, and missed chances in all facets. I came out for Morten at about 5-10, and things didn't get much better from there.

Marienlyst is a really good team, and will probably be the first seed for playoffs. Their service pressure gave us the most problems, and its always really tough to get in an offensive rythym if you don't have all your options early in a match. I've also never seen a team counter-attack so well, in the US or here. Granted we gave them a lot of easy balls at times, but even off of good attacks they still had 3 options half the time. The good news though is we still play them three more times, and things can only get better from here.