Game v Hvidovre

Our game against Hvidovre was a bit of a grudge match, because the last match we played against them is one we feel we should have won. Unlike the previous meeting, from the beginning Saturday we showed that we were the better team and came away with a fairly easy 3-0 victory.

I played the entire game in this matchup, for the first time since the previous meeting with Hvidovre. It felt good to contribute from the beginning and be able put my mark on the game in the way our offense was run. We passed well from the first serve and I was able to use all my options in attack. Our middles won nearly every ball, and Hvidovre committed quite a few hitting and service errors at inopportune moments (for them) to give us a comfortable 25-19 victory.

The reason Hvidovre was as close as they were in the first set was because they were able to get a lot of "block-out" balls by tooling our block. We adjusted in the second set and opened up a three or four point lead with some solid blocking by the front line. However, Hvidovre was able to go on a few runs of points off their own serve by giving us some trouble in reception. The game see-sawed back and forth with each team getting a few points off their own serve and taking a lead. At one point we were trailing 14-11, but we put together a run of points to take the lead at 17-15. I then went back and served seven balls in a row, which led to an easy win for the second set, 25-16.

The third set started off with Tue and Niels being switched at outside, and Morten Smith making an appearance towards the end of the set as well. In the early going we had some reception troubles from the second set still plaguing us, but by the middle of the set we had a lead of about three or four points. We continued to side out on the first ball nearly every time and got a few points here and there off our own serve to open up a solid lead. The set didn't end up being very close, with a 25-19 victory in our favor.

The strange thing about this match was the amount of points that both teams earned off their own serve. It was a quick match because of this; rather than the teams siding out and getting points bit by bit, both sides would go on runs of two or three points each time they had serve. On our part, we conceded the runs nearly always because of trouble in reception, but we earned the points off our own serve from solid counter-attacking and great blocking, especially in the run we had in the second set. I can't remember the last time I served so many balls in a row in a match, and I think at least half those points came from blocks by Dennis, Goat and Kesse. That big run we went on seemed to take the wind out of Hvidovre's sails, and they were forced to make several substitutions to slow us down. It was good to see us use the momentum and energy we had to finish them off in the final set. We now sit solidly in fourth place, but we're still taking each game one at at time, and as a group I think we have a good focus heading into our final three matches of the regular season.