Games v Århus and Holte

The last couple weeks have been pretty rough on the team due to injuries and illness, and it's definitely shown in the last two matches. Both the Århus and Holte matches were very similar; both games had missing starters and a poor second set in each, but in both cases we were able to get the result we needed.

In the Århus match we were without Mikkel and Flemming, so "The Hammer" (Morten) got his first elitedivision start as a middle. The first, third, and fourth sets were comfortable and we adjusted to Århus tipping and lobbing the ball often. In the second set however, everything went to hell. Passing, attacking, and serving just went out the door and Århus won the set easily. The final scores for the match were 25-19, 16-25, 25-17, and 25-16.

We had a similar second set against Holte on Sunday. We started off the match with five hitting errors and were down by more than seven points midway through the set. Morten was switched in for me and towards the end of second set and we made a good run to challenge them for the win. The rest of the match belonged to us however, and we blocked really well, especially against Holte's outsides. We were missing Tue due to illness so Steen got the start at outside, and Mikkel and Flemming both played but were less than 100%. The set scores against Holte were 22-25, 25-22, 13-25, and 21-25.

As I mentioned before, in both cases we got the result, which was the most important thing, however having such a horrible set two times in a row gives us something to think about. It's the point in the season where it's easy to lose focus, but we can't afford to drop matches or even sets when the table is so tight. I think that was the case with Marienlyst this weekend, who may have had a bit of a hangover (though not literally) from winning the NCC. It's the second time that Middelfart has beaten them 3-0 this year, and those are the only two losses for Marienlyst this season.

Looking forward to the last third of the season and possible final results, Middelfart's win puts Holte four points out of a top four spot, and it looks like a stretch to see them making the playoffs this season, though of course anything is possible. The fight to avoid relegation may likely come down to the match on 21 February between Skovbakken and Ikast. And finally, we will have to win our match against Gentofte this weekend if we want any chance at second place, and home court advantage for the playoffs. It should be an exciting final third of the season, with some great games down the stretch.

Nordjyske - Århus Match
Nordjyske - Holte Match

Cup Final

I've been slow to write about the cup final, mainly because I had no idea what went wrong. I wanted to see if I could let it sit for a bit and then maybe something would come to me as to why we made such a poor showing. But it's been more than a week now, and after spending a day or two after the match thinking about it, and despite talking about it as a team at practice the following Monday and Tuesday, nothing has become any clearer.
There were just a lot of little things that went wrong, and they all happened at the same time. There were instances of miscommunication and lots of stupid mistakes that should have been eliminated within the first month of the season. Looking at the scores from the game, the 16, 17, and 20 points we scored weren't really indicative of how lopsided the match really was. We made runs of at least three or four points at the end of each set, and we could have easily been held to 11 in the first. Marienlyst was consistent throughout the match and didn't do much that was unexpected from our point of view. They passed well in reception and Hove was able to spread the ball around. We slowed Powell as much as is possible, but he (and the rest of the team) weren't called upon to do much in order to win. That's the way it goes sometimes, but what was so disappointing was to do it in such an important match. Congratulations to Marienlyst for their second cup in as many years.

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