Final #1 v Marienlyst

For the fifth time this season we faced Marienlyst, though this time under vastly different circumstances than the previous league and pokal matchups. The Marienlyst team that showed up at the Stadionhal Sunday was a very different team than the one who visited three weeks earlier, and they played a solid all around game to take the match in three sets (21-25, 20-25, 23-25). Thanks again to the 500+ people who attended the match, I know all the players really enjoyed playing in front of the great home crowd.

Like the previous three matches against Middelfart, we had trouble with our serve, though this time it wasn't due to misses. We didn't put enough pressure on Marienlyst, and they passed well enough out of reception to have three options on offense nearly every time. That limited our ability to block well and took away one of our biggest advantages in the matchup. So even though we sided out pretty well ourselves, not being able to get many points off our own serve ultimately cost us.

We conceded some points early in the first which put us in a hole for the remainder of that set, and ran into a rough patch in the middle of the second which led to a comfortable win for Marienlyst there. In the third, however, we had a two point lead for most of the set, including a 21-18 advantage near the end. We had some difficulties in reception, however, and Marienlyst were able to tie it up and eventually take the set after getting a couple points off counterattacks.

I think that the remainder of the series will come down to serving and blocking: the team that pressures the opposition with their serve and gets some blocks will end up taking the sets. Marienlyst got them Sunday, but we're ready to fight and there's no reason those points can't go our way in the second leg on Thursday.

Check out the videos:
TV2 at the game
Short Clip