Matt In Denmark

New Website

2009-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

As you all have probably gathered, Matt is no longer in Denmark. So I have a new blog address, but this time decided to get really creative with the name. So may I present for your reading pleasure...

http://mattinukraine.blogspot.com

The new site still has all the old posts, so you just need to update your bookmarks (if I've been so lucky) to follow me in Ukraine. Thanks for reading.

Matt

Kiev

2009-09-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

Main square

Kiev

Pechersk Lavra Monastery

Nezalezhnist Training Tournament

2009-08-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we hosted a tournament that coincides with Ukrainian Independence Day. We ended up winning the tournament, and our libero and outside hitter picked up best libero and best player awards, respectively.

I didn't play that much, but I knew I wouldn't going in because I hadn't trained much with the team. I played about half the time in the first match, and was part of some double switches in the last two matches, as well as making some appearances as a serving specialist. I had an ace in each match and made some good plays but I'm clearly still getting back into volleyball mode.

Our first match was against the youth team of Lokomotiv Belogorie, who's senior team is one of the best in Russia and in Europe. They were a good team, but young, and it wasn't much of a challenge for us. The set scores were 25-18, 25-17, and 25-18. I honestly expected a bit more from them, though I would put their level at about the same as a top Under-17's or Under 18's team from the States.

The second match was against VC Favorit, a club that just came up to the Superleague from the 2nd Division Ukraine. They were decent, and it was interesting for me to see what kind of level the rest of the league has. They were all big, and pretty solid all around, though they didn't have much depth on their bench. We made a lot of errors in the second set and lost it pretty badly, but rebounded to win 3-1. The set scores were 25-22, 19-25; 25-18, and 25-16.

The last match was against VC Metallurg, who was the champion of Belarus last year and is playing in the Challenge Cup. They were a really good team, and it was a close match the whole way through. We came out quick and won the first two sets without much difficulty, but Metallurg rallied and won the third and fourth to force a final set. It was 7-8 at the switch, and I went in to serve for our middleblocker when we were down 8-11. We got one point back off my serve, then they sided out to go up 9-12. We were out of subs, so I changed with the libero and went back to the bench. We ended up getting a couple points back again (including two side outs when they had match ball) and suddenly it was 16-16 and I had to go back in the front row to play "middle." We switched so that the opposite was blocking middle and I went to my normal place in position 2. They set their opposite and we got a dig and a kill from the outside to go up 17-16 and get our first match ball. They set the outside on the next play and I got a touch and we picked it up to get another counterattack and win the match. It ended up being a little ugly, but we got the win, and I was able to make my middle debut in Ukraine, which was exciting.

After the match we were treated to some cheerleader dancing, as well as some traditional Ukrainian folk song and dance numbers by some kids, all of which was set to a laser light show, which was kinda funny. I've been looking for pictures or video of the match, but it's not up on our site yet, and I don't think the newspapers were covering the matches, but if I find anything I'll be sure to post it.

Ukraine

2009-08-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

After two days of training the team here in Klagenfurt ended up signing another setter instead of me. So it goes. However, the experience here was good, and I just got word of a team in Ukraine that is looking for a setter. So tomorrow I'm taking a train to Vienna and then flying into Kiev.

The club is called VC Impexagro Sport Cherkasy and is in Cherkasy, about 150 km south of Kiev. They play in the top division in Ukraine and finished 5th last year. There is apparently a tournament starting on Tuesday, and they want me to play with them for that. I've never been to Ukraine and I don't know anything about the Cyrillic alphabet, so this will definitely be an interesting experience, but I'm looking forward to playing some good volleyball.

Back in Denmark

2009-08-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

After a great summer back in California, and nice little sending off with the Six-Man, I'm back in Denmark. (If you want to know why I'm wearing a dress, you've obviously never been to Six-Man.)

I won't be here long, however, as I'm heading off to Klagenfurt, Austria for a tryout. The team, VBK Wörther-See-Löwen Klagenfurt, is in 1. Bundesliga, which is the top division in Austria, and they finished 5th last year, one spot out of a European Cup.

I leave Tuesday morning, fly into Venice, then catch a train to Klagenfurt, which is a little less than four hours away. I'll arrive in the evening, and likely have my first training Wednesday. I'll keep everyone updated on how it goes.

Photos from the Final

2009-04-17T01:27:00.000-07:00

Photevent.dk

Team of the Year

2009-04-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

The voting for team of the year ended Sunday, so I thought I'd offer my predictions on who I think will pick up the awards and why.

Outside Hitter - Jonas Napier and Niels Knudsen
Napier passes half the court even in three man serve reception, and gets kills when everyone in the gym knows the ball is going to him. Niels has had a great season for us as well, being a very good passer and attacker on the outside.
Honorable Mention: Tobias Nielsen

Middle Blockers - Mikkel Vestergaard and Flemming Olufsen
Having Mikkel playing again this year has been great for us, and the one-two combination of him and Flemming has carried us at times. The only thing that limits them is our ability to get them the ball.
Honorable Mention: Matthew Lebourdias and Per Eggers

Opposite - Shaun Powell
Easily the best attacker in the Elitedivision, he has the ability to hit over any block from the front or back row.
Honorable Mention: Kasper Munk

Setter - Jordan Hove
Another easy choice. He makes Marienlyst run, and has an excellent ability to turn bad passes into a fast, accurate offense.
Honorable Mention: Sebastian Mikelsons

Libero - BT Knudsen
He made some amazing digs in the cup final, and every time I see him play he comes up with at least one incredible defense ball.
Honorable Mention: Jonas Søndergaard

Newcomer of the Year - Kasper Munk
Served and attacked great against us, and was a big part of Holte's success this year.
Honorable Mention: Simon Bitsch

Player of the Year - Jordan Hove
This is a close call between him and Napier, but if you look at wins and losses, Hove has to take it. He's gotten his team to the finals, and already has two cup wins under his belt. It's difficult for a setter to take over a match the way that an outside hitter can, but Hove still manages to with his serving and defense.

Final #1

2009-04-13T05:50:00.000-07:00

The first final was Wednesday night, and it ended up being a disappointing one for us as we lost to Marienlyst 3-1. The set scores were 22-25, 16-25, 25-14, and 21-25.

In both the first and fourth sets we had leads of a few points but couldn't do anything with it, and both the second and third sets were easy wins for Marienlyst and us, respectively. Both teams ended up finishing the match with different outside hitters; Steen came in for Tue and did a good job with his first significant playing time in the postseason, while for Marienlyst Peter Schøler came in for Jon Daze, who seemed to be having shoulder problems.

Our big issue was poor serve reception, which limited our ability to run the middles. Mikkel Søe got four or five points nearly every time he served, and we had trouble in some other rotations as well. We actually managed to win some good points in counterattack, but the high number of points we lost in sideout made those gains negligible.

We now go to Marienlyst in the same situation as last year, and we should expect the environment to be the same: a loud, sauna-like hall and a heavy dose of Powell in attack. We will obviously be looking for a different result this year, and if we sideout better we can send it to a third game.

TV2 Nord
Nordjyske Article
Nordjyske Pictures

Finals Bound!

2009-04-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

After a dramatic and hard-fought game Saturday evening, we are headed to the finals for the second straight year. As much as things didn't go our way in the second semifinal Wednesday, they did on Saturday night, as we were able to win points at critical times and come back from big deficeits in the third and fourth sets. The set scores for the match were 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, and 22-25.

The second semifinal on Wednesday wasn't the greatest from our point of view, and we made a ton of service errors that took a lot of pressure off Gentofte. Napier absolutely went off in the first set, serving from 16-13 to finish off the set. He continued to be the offense for Gentofte for the rest of the match, getting plenty of kills from both the front and back row and leading Gentofte to a win.

Saturday night we knew we would have to stop him if we were going to have a chance of winning. We made some adjustments in our block and refocused our efforts on serving, and felt like we could slow him down enough to force other people to make some plays. The first and second sets were very similar; both teams traded sideouts and played tight throughout, with Gentofte taking the first and us taking the second.

The third set was nearly all Gentofte, and they opened up a lead of five or six points late in the set. We didn't get worried, and got three or four points each from Niels and me serving, which put us out in front and gave us control of the set. We sided out to finish the set and take a 2-1 set lead, putting us in firm control of the match.

Any control or momentum that we had was lost, however, when Gentofte came out and opened up a 9-1 lead in the next set. But as in the third, we sided out on the first ball each time and got at least one or two points off our own serve. We tied up the game around 14, and with that came the feeling that winning the set was inevitable. Gentofte looked rattled, and our service pressure ended up being too much for them. We recieved serve at 24-20 (from Napier, who strangely enough was always serving at the end of the sets Saturday night), and they got a couple points, but Thomas got the final kill to send us to the finals.

Thomas deserves some special mention because he came off the bench and played great for us, and was huge in the comebacks in the third and fourth sets. Another thing that made this win so big is that it was the first victory for Aalborg in Kildeskovshallen since 2005.

After Sunday night's other semifinal, we now know we will be playing Marienlyst, in what will be a rematch of last year's championship. The first match is Thursday 9 April at 16:00 in Aalborg.

Nordjyske Article
Pictures

Watch the Semifinal Live

2009-03-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

Gentofte shows their matches live on the internet, so if you'd like to watch the second semifinal match live, follow the link below to download the software.

Gentofte TV Page

After you have downloaded and installed the program, start it up. Choose the 'sign up' option and register your username. The installation puts a shortcut on your desktop which will take you directly to Gentofte TV.

The match starts at 19:30 CET (10:30 am Pacific) on Wednesday 1 April.

First Semifinal vs Gentofte

2009-03-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

The first semifinal was Sunday evening against Gentofte, and we were finally able to get our game back on track and play at a level that we were happy with. The result was a 3-0 win, with set scores 25-22, 26-24, and 25-19.

All the sets were close through the first 15 points or so, with both teams trading serve and the occasional counterattack point, but by 15 in each set we were able to pull ahead by a few points.

We missed at least seven or eight serves in the first set, which was frustrating, but we sided out well enough to limit the damage from that. However in the second set we put our serves in the court and continued siding out well, which got us into a good rhythm. At the end of the second we had a lead of 24-23 with a chance to sideout for the set. Niels got blocked to tie it up at 24 all, but we stayed calm and sided out and got a counterattack point to win.

In the third set Napier switched to opposite, but it was more of the same from us. We got some good serving from Niels and some key blocks from our middles to give us a solid 5 point lead midway through the set. We cruised from there and took the final frame easily.

It felt good for me to finally feel in sync with the hitters again, and I think this was a good team effort, where everybody did what they needed to do to help the team win. We had a good plan going in, plus the confidence of knowing that we've beaten Gentofte every time we've played at home for the last two years. It must be said, however, that we haven't won on their home court in as many years, though I think now is as good a time as any. We have last year's experience of winning semifinal games away from home, which can only help us, and with all the pressure on Gentofte, we will be able to play our game, which this year (as opposed to last season) seems to be better when we are more relaxed.

Pictures (Big thanks to Morten Smith for them!)
Nordjyske
TV2 Nord

The Last Four Matches

2009-03-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a while (again) since I blogged, and we've had matches against Gentofte, Middelfart, Ikast, and one last weekend against Marienlyst. A lot has changed since the last time I wrote, when we were fighting with Gentofte for a second place spot. We lost our match against them and they are now in first, with Marienlyst second, and our loss to Middelfart the week after has knocked us down to fourth place.

The match against Gentofte was frustrating because we won the first set comfortably, then had several swings for set ball in the second set which we couldn't convert. Gentofte won both the second and third sets 27-25, though in the third we were behind and made a late run to challenge for the set, which turned out to not be enough.

The loss against Middelfart the week after was only our second home loss of the season. It was an ugly game and easy for Middelfart, as we lost by scores of 16-25, 18-25, and 17-25. We didn't have Jonas for that match, and Dimitar got a nasty cut on his had in warmups, so he had to come out because he was bleeding all over the court. Steen came in and played libero and did fine, but we were already out of it at that point. The loss put us behind Middelfart in the table, as we were level on points but with a lower set score.

The match again Ikast a week later was pretty up and down for us. We played decently in the sets we won, and held Ikast to 16 and 17 points, and only 7 in the deciding set. But the second and fourth sets were full of trouble in reception (as we were still without Jonas) and we made too many errors.

We had the next weekend off, then a trip to Odense to meet Marienlyst. We won the first set easily, thanks to a lot of attacking errors from Marienlyst and some decent serving by us. The second set was full of drama because the Marienlyst coach wrote the lineup wrong so that the middle blocker was following the setter in the rotation. The down ref told them to get in the correct position before the set started, but I don't think they realized that the lineup was written wrong. Eventually they got called for some rotation errors, and started complaining about the calls. The refs lost control at that point, and there really should have been some cards shown. The fact that we couldn't win that set was embarassing, considering we got several points from rotation errors, but we made plenty of errors to erase any advantage that might have given us. The fourth and final set went to Marienlyst as well, and ended up not being very close in the end.

The playoffs will be interesting this year because I don't think any team is playing particularly well. We've played the three other playoff teams within a month of each other, and no one really looked to be on top of their game. Gentofte relied on Jonas to carry them but didn't have much else going on, Middelfart came to our place and beat us in 3, but you never know which team will show up with them, Marienlyst looked unmotivated, and we've just lost to those three teams. With the last round of the season meaningless in terms of final position, I'm sure most teams are looking ahead to the semifinal matchups already, though how those will turn out is anyone's guess.

Games v Århus and Holte

2009-02-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

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.

TV2 Nord Video
TV2 Fyn Video
DR Video
Nordjyske Pictures
Photoevent.dk Pictures

Cup Final Tomorrow

2009-01-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the big cup final, and we are meeting Marienlyst for the fourth time this season. Last week's match against them was unspectacular for both teams, and it really seemed like both sides were pretty flat, almost as though we didn't want to celebrate things too much, for fear of not being excited enough when we met again a week later. That certainly won't be the case Sunday, and I know everyone is looking forward to this match. We've got a bus of supporters coming down with us, and around 2,000 spectators are expected. Those of you who can't make it to the game can follow the live-score online here. The match starts at 15:30 (6:30 am Pacific).

Here's some more information about the game:

Cup History:
Aalborg HIK: Champion in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003; Runner up in 2002
Marienlyst: Champion in 2004 and 2007

Elitedivision Records:
Marienlyst: 11-1 (1st)
Aalborg HIK: 7-4 (3rd)

Head to head matchup this season:
Marienlyst leads 3-0

Aalborg's Route to the Final:
1/8 Final: Forfeit win against Amager
1/4 Final: Holte 0 - 3 Aalborg HIK
Semifinal: Aalborg HIK 3 - 0 Middelfart

Marienlyst's Route to the Final
1/8 Final: Korsør-Slagelse 1 - 3 Marienlyst
1/4 Final: Hvidovre 0 - 3 Marienlyst
Semifinal: Gentofte 0 - 3 Marienlyst

Quotes:
Marienlyst coach Mikkel Hauge: "They will win if we don't play our best. The difference [between the teams] is not that great. They are talking a lot about Shaun Powell as 'the man' we can always set as a last resort."

Aalborg HIK assistant coach Wagner Foldberg: "Winning the cup final first of all demands that we find the right level of excitement. We are going need more 'wildness' and have to be ready from the first serve. It won't work if we, as in Saturday's game, need a set to find out it's for real."

Nordjyske Article

2009-01-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

http://www.nordjyske.dk/sport/forside.aspx?ctrl=10&data=5%2c3051022%2c5%2c4

TV2 Nord from the Marienlyst Match

2009-01-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.tv2nord.dk/default.asp?PageID=4&ProgrammeDate=18-01-2009&ProgrammeID=2&ProgrammePartID=161920

Cup Semifinal vs Middelfart

2008-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday was the last match of 2008 and the cup semifinal against Middelfart. They beat us the last time we met, which was in the league, in a match that was arguably our worst of the year. The cup was a good opportunity to make up for that loss, and the fact that we were able to play at home was an added bonus.

Since I didn't talk about the cup much last year, I should probably explain how it works. The cup is a completely separate competition from the normal league where everyone plays three times. The cup is a single-elimination tournament where your opponent is drawn randomly from the teams in the elitedivision and some from the first division. Our first match was won by forfeit against Amager (from the first division), who never contacted us about dates to play, and the quarterfinal was against Holte, which we played just before the NCC. The cup is a unique competition because it gives teams from lower divisions a chance to play the sides from the elitedivision. However, it is usually the same four or so teams that end up in the finals (though maybe some Danish volleyball historians can tell us if any first division team has ever made it to the finals).

We started the match off slowly against Middelfart, down by 3 or 4 points early in the first set, but we gradually worked our way back in to the game. We felt that if we could get the score close by the last five points we would have a good chance of taking the set. Morten and Thomas came in and we were able to earn a few important points off our serve towards the end and took the set by a score of 25-23.

The second set was close as well, but the lead of a few points that we got midway though the frame was sufficient, so in the end there was less doubt about the outcome, a 25-22 win for us. The third set was entirely ours, as we put better service pressure on them, which led to some good blocks for us. They made a lot of errors in the third set as well, which gave us a comfortable 25-16 win.

I think our team does a good job of keeping leads, especially when we play at home. I would be interested to know what our record is in sets where we have a lead of three or more points. We've lost 15 sets this year in total (11 in league and four in the NCC), and if I had to guess I would say that of those 15 less than five were ones in which we had a meaningful lead. (In general I consider three to be a meaningful lead, though as always it depends on the team you are playing and how both teams' sideout offense is going.) And actually I wouldn't be surprised if it was just one or two sets.

So what does that mean? If you look at it from a skills perspective it means we have a good sideout offense. But it also means we are a good team, in the sense that we work well together. It means we don't give up runs of points, don't suffer big breakdowns in physical or mental terms. No one goes through a match siding out perfectly, but what's important is to limit mistakes when they occur, and help a struggling teammate move on to the next rotation, which is something we've done well this year.

Finishing a game is an important team skill in every sport, but I'm not sure if there's any way to coach it. Is it a product of the relationships between the players (the so-called 'team chemistry') or is it the sum of each individual's 'finishing ability'? It's likely some of both, which raises the million dollar question: If you don't have it, how do you get it?

I'm not sure it can be 'gotten.' I think the dynamic of the team will either allow it or it won't. It may be possible to have great chemistry without the ability to finish. It also may be possible to have no chemistry but the ability to finish. Ultimately though, a championship team needs to have chemistry and the ability to finish. A team with only great chemistry won't be able to win as many close games if the individuals suffer breakdowns at critical moments. And teams that lack chemistry but still have individual finishing ability won't be able to help each other along in moments of adversity. And teams that have neither chemistry nor individual finishing ability... well you're pretty much screwed. Sorry.

But of course chemistry and individual finishing ability are still not enough. Volleyball (and all sports) are ultimately about skill, and if you play a better-skilled team they are more likely to win, regardless of chemistry. But when teams are equal in skill, or when a good team is playing poorly, the team that can finish will jump on the opportunity and win the game.

Nordjyske Article

2008-12-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.nordjyske.dk/sport/forside.aspx?ctrl=10&data=5%2c3027934%2c5%2c3

A 1/3 Season Recap

2008-12-04T05:54:00.000-08:00

At this point we are a third of the way through the season (plus one match) so having seen everyone in the league at least once it seems like a good time to make some commentary. I'll go in order of the standings right now and write some things that come to mind about each team:

Marienlyst-Back in the number one spot, where most expect them to be. I'm disappointed they weren't able to go farther in the Challenge Cup which would have been great for Danish volleyball, but think they'll do really well in Sweden (gratuitous self promotion: that Challenge Cup match against the Bosnian team would be great for someone to put on volleyballtorrents.com!). Some of the recent things I've heard coming out of Odense make it sound like there is some unhappiness with the new coach, but I can't see that being too much of an issue.

HIK-Everyone on our team is pretty happy with being second now, and with the semi-final match in the cup coming up as well, we're right in line with our goals for the season. Tue and Mikkel have stepped in well, and with essentially the same team as last year we have some good chemistry going forward. I think our team is unique in the depth that we have off the bench, something that can serve us well later in the season. And since I haven't mentioned it yet here, congrats to Flemming, Niels, Jonas, Morten, and Kesse for getting the call-up to the national team.

Gentofte-Also has a very similar team to last year. They're going to be a tough match when we play them away the third time, which could have a big impact on the standings. They definitely miss not having the Goat in their lineup, so getting him back could be a big boost for them.

Middelfart-One of the biggest surprises of the season. They're a hard team to understand simply looking at scores. They beat Marienlyst, but drop a lot of sets to teams lower in the table. I think they are still in a readjustment period, with a new coach and lot of new players that may still all be getting used to each other.

Holte-One of the most successful teams in Danish volleyball is back in the Elitedivision and looking to play a spoiler, likely for the fourth spot. They have the veteran craftiness to pull out a few more upsets I think.

Ikast-Looked the same in the series as when we saw them in a preseason tournament. They have good runs, but when things go bad they implode. A team with some good young players that looks like they will be able to stay up in the Elitedivision if they can keep up their current form.

Århus-Definitely the biggest surprise of the year. Even with the money for buying foreigners gone, I don't think many expected them to be on zero points at this stage in the season. Definitely need to turn it around the second time through the series if they don't want to go down.

Match v Gentofte

2008-12-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Our match last weekend was against Gentofte, who was the top team in the table when they arrived in Aalborg. They didn't stay that way for long however, as we beat them in four sets: 25-18, 24-26, 26-24, and 25-18. The win put us as number one for a short time, until Marienlyst got their two points from Ikast and moved back into the top spot, bumping us down to second, level on points with Gentofte but with a better set record.

The first and fourth sets were very similar, with good service pressure by us forcing Gentofte to the outsides and our blockers taking care of the rest. The second and third sets were close, and the third one was interesting in particular because we came back from a defecit of several points late in the set to win, and take some good momentum into the fourth.

Gentofte didn't pass well, so their middles (minus the Goat) only won a handful of balls on the afternoon, and we were able to limit Napier's effectiveness in attack from both the front and back row, which was important. We ran the middle decently, though Gentofte was committing with them early in the match so our outsides had some good chances. Steen was substituted in the third set and stayed in the entire fourth set and played really well. He made some good passes when he was served and won a few balls, but most importantly served well at the end of the fourth set to put it out of reach.

HIK - Gentofte TV Coverage

2008-12-01T01:02:00.000-08:00

Tv2 Nord clip of the Gentofte match

Pictures from NCC

2008-11-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

Back to the Blog

2008-11-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since I wrote, so without going into the major reasons why, I'll just get to the blogging.

We've had seven matches since I last wrote: one against Ikast in which I didn't play due to a broken finger, a cup match against Holte, three matches in the Nordic Club Championships, and then another two weekends ago against Marienlyst. I'll get to the match against Skovbakken in a different post...

The game against Ikast went smoothly, and wasn't too remarkable except for the second set when we came back from a big deficit thanks to Tue's great serving. The rest of the match was pretty comfortable for us and we won in straight sets.

We had a weekend off then a strech of four matches in four days, thanks to some "creative" scheduling by Holte. In the Cup, the home team proposes several days to play the match, one of which must be a weekend day. Their proposed weekend day for the cup match was while we were playing in the Nordic Club Championships, of which they were well aware. So we were left with a few week days to choose from, and we picked the day before the NCC started, which ended up working out well. I had just been cleared to play on Tuesday, so I was pretty excited to get back into action. So Thursday we ended up beating Holte 3-0, which was important because it set a good tone for the weekend and allowed us to conserve energy for the following three days.

After the Holte match we took the bus up to Odense and got settled into our hotel, the CabInn, a hotel that seemed straight out of Japan. It was comfortable and nice, but everything was tiny. The tournament was very well run by Marienlyst (and Fortuna), so thanks to them for a well-run weekend. Our first match was against the Icelandic team Throttur. They had some moments of good play and a solid opposite, but were a little out of their league on the weekend. We dropped a set to them, but won the rest comfortably.

Saturday we played the Swedish team Vingåkers, who had a couple North Americans on the team. They were a very similar team to Orkeljunga, whom we met in the preseason. Both teams had good ball control, with slower tempo offenses despite smaller hitters. It's only two teams that I've seen, but that's the impression I get about the Swedish league. At any rate, we beat them 3-0 and played well in the process, setting up the final match of the tournament against Marienlyst for the guaranteed spot at the finals. We had watched Marienlyst play an uninspiring match before us against the Icelanders, and felt good about our chances on Sunday.

Unfortunately Sunday turned out to be a blowout for Marienlyst. We played poorly and Marienlyst was on the top of their game, something we saw a few times last year. Our best serves were passed perfectly, our offense was out of sync, and Powell was on fire. They beat us easily in three and got their place in the finals. The three other teams to go are Falkenberg (Joakim's team and winner of the group that played in Copenhagen), Nyborg (winner of the group in Norway) and Middelfart (second place in the group in Norway). I'm disappointed we're not going since Gentofte and we had more difficult pools, and Middelfart could only finish 1-1 in the easiest group. But that's the nature of group play, and I'll still be rooting for them and Marienlyst when they go to Sweden.

The following week we had an opportunity to get some revenge on Marienlyst but let it slip through our hands. We came out of the gates quick and got out to early leads in the first three sets. We closed out the first two, but in the third with a lead of 20-17 we failed to finish. Marienlyst took the fourth set as well to force a deciding frame. They took an early lead of three or four points but we climbed back in to it and tied it up around 14. The match went to extra points, and we were forced each time to side out to keep the match going. We had a few chances on our own serve to earn a point but couldn't capitalize, and lost 20-18.

And actually this is a good lead in to something else that has been taking me away from blogging: a website that I've started. VolleyballTorrents.com is a site I've made for people to upload and download torrents of... you guessed it, volleyball! So far I've got about 15 matches on there, and I have 10 or so more torrents to put up. There are four categories each for men and women: Beach, Club, International, and College. You can't download without signing up (all you need is an email and I promise I'm not going to spam you or sell it or anything like that), but once you have you can browse the torrents and download, and (what I'd really like) start uploading your own matches. So all that was a really long lead in to this: if you want to see the Marienlyst - HIK match, you can download it from the site. So go check it out and start uploading your own stuff.

Match v Middelfart

2008-10-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 11th October, we hosted Middelfart for the third game of the year, in a rematch of last season's semifinal. It was an important match because we each had taken only two points from the first two matches, and both sides were looking for two more to move up the table early in the season.

The first set went quickly and easily thanks to great service pressure from our side, most notably Niels, who put us out to an early lead that set the tone for the match. We never looked back from there, and won a lot of points from solid serving and counterattacking.

The second set started off slowly for us, but our centers Mikkel and Jens set up a wall that Middelfart could find no way around. Despite Middelfart's best efforts to change personnel around and try different looks, we continued blocking well (including a monster block by Tue) and earning points off our serve. The defecit we faced early in the set was erased by some great serving from Jens, who gave us a lead which we never surrendered.

The third set continued in the same way as the first and second, with our block continuing to dominate at the net and win us points off our serve. Kesse and Morten came in again as part of a double substitution and continued the high level of play to see the set almost to its completion. The final ball was a kill from Jens, which sealed a comfortable two points taken from an important rival.

An Open Letter to Udlændingservice

2008-09-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

To Whom it May Concern at the Immigration Office:

That joke isn't funny anymore. It's the one where your complete incompetence causes huge problems in my life. Remember last year when I applied for a work permit in the beginning of September and never received a reply in the ten months I was here? That wasn't funny. But okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt about that one. I applied while I was in the country, which you don't like ("subject to five year waiting period"), and it was probably a job that a Danish person could have done. But still, it wasn't funny was to call every week and have the exact same conversation each time. Here's how it went:
Me: I'm calling to check on my work permit application. My case number is ###.
Worker: Alright... Wow, you've been waiting a long time. (They would actually say this to me.) Let me just check something... Okay, well you should hear something soon, and I'll put a note in your file.
(Repeat for 9 months)

But this time it's different. My math and education degree can be put to good use teaching. I applied from California. And seeing as many of the teachers at my potential school (a small sample size) are not qualified to be teachers or don't have a math degree, it doesn't seem like the area around Aalborg is exactly teeming with qualified math teachers. And from what I've heard Denmark is lacking math teachers as well. So why did you write in your letter that someone from Denmark or the E.U. could be doing this job? You're right, there is probably a guy in central Slovakia that could do the job, but the fact is, he's not here! And by the way, I'm a native English speaker, which is pretty useful when the language of instruction is English.

You also wrote in that letter that I didn't have enough hours per week. It's really considerate of you to worry about how I'll spend my free time, but I think I can pass those hours myself. That must be the only reason you are worried about hours. It can't be because I'm not making enough money, because I would earn same amount as the monthly government stipend given to students. If it's enough for a Danish student, why can't it be enough for me? And I also live in some of the least expensive housing in Aalborg, so don't worry about rent.

The comedians you hire to work the phones at the Udlændingservice also aren't funny anymore. If I call one week, they will tell me I am on the positive list; the next week, I'm not (a huge difference in determining minimum hours, wages, processing time, etc.). Does anybody really know? I definitely still don't. And take last week for example, when I called and you said my decision had been made two weeks prior (which wasn't mentioned in phone calls!). It turns out you mailed it to my address from last year. Ever think there was a reason my new application didn't list any Danish address? I moved to a different apartment! So I rushed off to the police station, where the comedian on the phone said there was another copy (because for some reason they didn't know the result). The police station told me they didn't have anything. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. So the policewoman called the Udlændingservice, and the conversation went like this:
Woman (on the phone still): They say they don't have a decision.
Me: Well I just spoke to someone 45 minutes ago and they said it was here.
Woman: Okay, wait... (Comes back in 5 minutes) What was the name of the person?
Me: They didn't say.
Woman: Was it a man or a woman?
Me: It was a woman.
Woman (five more minutes later): I guess it is here, but you have to wait while we look for it.

Another 10 minutes later someone surfaced with the letter.

I've dealt with bureaucracy in my time, and seen my fair share of incompetence, but I've never experienced both simultaneously on such a massive scale. Udlændingservice, please get it together. I'm qualified for the job, I'm not going to mooch off your social services, I'm not going to kill any cartoonists, and I promise I'll teach really really well so that if some day one of my students ends up working in the foreigner service office, they'll do a better job than the ones there now.

Sincerely,
Matt

Next Season

2008-06-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

I've made my decision to return to HIK for next season. There were several factors that went into my decision, and ultimately I decided that this would be the best option for me. I'm back in California until 13 August, so the blog will be on hiatus for a while.

Highlight Video

2008-05-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Finals

2008-04-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Final #2 v Marienlyst

2008-04-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

First of all, hats off to Marienlyst for a well played final. I think over the course of the two matches they played some great volleyball, and they deserved to win.

We came out and from the first point played with a lot of energy and excitement, something that we've done all season when our backs are against the wall. I'm not sure if Marienlyst was nervous or caught off guard in the beginning, but they made a lot of mistakes and we took the first set pretty easily, 25-21.

We had a lot of momentum for the second set, and a lead of a couple points through most of it, but we just couldn't close the door on Marienlyst, and they were able to take advantage. It was some pretty exciting sideout volleyball at the end of the set with Marienlyst edging us out 30-28.

The loss in the second set took a lot of momentum out of our sails and fired up both Marienlyst and their crowd. The third and fourth sets belonged to them, and specifically, Shaun Powell. We had no answer for him as he continued to win nearly every ball in sideout and transition.

The team was pretty disappointed with the result, but in the end we have to be satisfied with how we did. We had some ups and downs but ultimately we peaked at the right time and were able to do some really good things as a group. I think I'll write a bit more later about the season as a whole and toss out some general thoughts about my time here.

I still haven't made any decision about returning to Aalborg for next season. I want to take some time to think it through, but I promise I'll let you loyal readers know when I do make a decision...

Final #1 v Marienlyst

2008-04-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

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

Semifinal #3 v Middelfart

2008-04-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

We're going to the finals! Middelfart 2-3 HIK (23-25, 14-25, 25-22, 25-15, 13-15)

Saturday night's game was a great match, and had quite a few memorable moments. After going up 2-0 in sets, I think we took Middelfart for granted a bit, but they showed they had the ability to come back from deficits also. The first set started off well for us and was close the entire way. We got some good blocks that gave us some critical points on our own serve, which ended up winning the set for us. The second and fourth sets were both similar; midway through each there were a few good plays and some mistakes that made the set all but won early on.

The third set appeared to be of the same mould, but we chipped away at Middelfart's lead slowly, earning a point or two each time we sided out. We tied up the game around 21, but Middelfart managed to earn a few counterattacks to take the set. If we had lost that set badly and the fourth as well, who knows what our mental state would have been, so even though we didn't end up winning the third, the comeback was still very important for us. I think despite our getting hammered in the fourth we managed to bounce back in the critical fifth set because of our play in the third.

There were some great plays from everyone, including our "four leaf clover" of blockers Fleming, Jesper, Joakim, and Kesse (who is now Norwegian apparently). Some other things of note from the game:
•The most memorable person from the night may have been the scorekeeping secretary, who was absolutely wasted. You could smell the booze when you walked past the table, and he was wisely "substituted" after he couldn't work both the flip scoreboard and the electronic one simultaneously.
•The most memorable play of the night (which wasn't the last point, which ended with a missed serve) was probably a ball Niels hit from the outside that nailed the libero in the face. He laid on the ground for a couple minutes but luckily was okay and able to continue.
•The crowd at Lillebæltshallen was pretty hostile. It was most obvious when they were yelling at the ref (which isn't anything new), but apparently they were getting impatient with their own players as well, which is a little surprising to me.
•Our own crowd of traveling fans was great again. They were loud and made the atmosphere a great one to play in. I'm looking forward to seeing even more for the championship games.
•We beat Middelfart at home two times in five days after they hadn't dropped a home match in six months.

The best news coming out of the semifinals is the feeling on the team that we still have a couple areas where we can improve, which will give us focus for the last week of practice. We're happy with what we've done, but we're not satisfied, an important distinction that affects our attitude towards the finals.

And even though we scored a victory in the last meeting with Marienlyst we are not taking anything for granted. On paper Marienlyst has to be the favorite, but as they say, games aren't won on paper. Marienlyst is (and has been) the consensus pick to win it all, and Aalborg is the team that came from nowhere (sitting 5th in the table at the end of January) to make it to the finals. I think we've managed to provide some of the biggest surprises of the season in the Elitedivision, and certainly now is not the time to stop.

Semifinal #2 v Middelfart

2008-04-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

We went down to Middelfart for the second leg of the series with a pretty positive attitude after the loss Saturday. Our traveling fans made it a good atmosphere in Lillebæltshallen and managed to drown out the Middelfart cheers at certain points as well, which I know all the players appreciated.

The first set didn't go particularly well for us as we missed a lot of serves and didn't side out very well. Middelfart had a pretty big lead for most of the set, and when they got to around 20 Morten and I were switched, and he did a good job of getting some rhythm into the sideout attacks, but it just wasn't enough. They ended up taking the set easily, 17-25.

The second, third, and fourth sets were all really close affairs. Morten started each set and Jens and I came in as part of double switches in the late points to get some extra attacking and blocking. As a whole our serving settled down a bit (though still not up to our usual standard) and when it did we were able to earn some counterattacks. We came up with some timely blocks and sided out on the first ball pretty well also. We took the second set 26-24 and lost a close third set 23-25, but with out backs against the wall won a big victory in the fourth, 25-20.

The deciding set was close the entire way, and when we sided out at 6-6 Tue came in for Jesper to serve. He served about five balls in a row to give us a ton of momentum and a good lead for the final push. The rest of the way we sided out on the first serve every time with the exception of one ball, and Jens won a really important sideout ball to give us match point. Middelfart sided out though and on the next reception I set Niels on the outside who put the match away for us.

Despite giving Middelfart an entire set's worth of points on missed serves alone, we definitely upped our level of play from the previous match. As a whole though our team agrees there is still another gear that we can kick it in to, so it will just be a matter of finding that on Saturday night, in what should be an exciting finish to the series.

Semifinal #1 v Middelfart

2008-03-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

We played our first semifinal playoff Saturday night, and it was a late affair due to some scheduling issues at the Stadionhal. Even though it was late, it was easily the largest crowd I've seen for a volleyball match in Denmark, and my hat goes off to our fans for making a great atmosphere to play in.

Before the match even started, we got the bad news that Kesse wouldn't be able to play, so Jens started for him and played well, getting a couple blocks and good kills as the opposite. We made a lot of mistakes and gave up a run of about five points in the beginning of the set that put us in quite a hole. We went on a run of our own a bit later in the set and narrowed the gap, but Middelfart ran off a few points again and finished us off comfortably, 21-25.

The start of the second set saw Kesse's shoulder loosen up a bit and he was able to come in for us. We played much better from the beginning, and I think we shook off whatever jitters or nerves were troubling us in the first set. We sided out solidly and were able to contain their opposite fairly well. We were definitely in the drivers seat in this one, but we had some trouble in reception that let them back in it, and a couple stupid mistakes at the net at the end wound up costing us. They took the set 26-28.

The third set started off 4-0 in our favor and was close until about the midway point, when Middelfart began to pull away. They sided out well and their opposite won nearly every ball in transition. We didn't serve well enough to pressure them much and they ended up winning the set 20-25.

Most winning streaks come to an end at some point, and in all honesty this loss wasn't earth-shattering or heart-breaking by any stretch of the imagination. We know why we lost and what we need to do to fix it. We made a lot of mental errors that were reminiscent of our play several months ago, but I don't think that it's indicative of us taking any steps backwards; we just had a bad day.

Despite that, we still did a lot of things well in the match. It was one of our best defensive efforts in recent memory, which allowed us to counter-attack well and earn some points. Still, our overall level was definitely a step below where it has been for the last seven matches, and in the early going it almost seemed like we were trying to do too much. We showed our potential in flashes, so it will simply be a matter of remembering to take a deep breath when things get too hectic. Hopefully the loss can serve as a motivation and refocus us for the remaining games of the season. Luckily our team seems to relish being the underdog, so I don't think we'll have any problem going into Middelfart in a "do-or-die" type situation.

Game v Gentofte

2008-03-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon we kept our hopes alive of a 3rd place finish with a 3-1 victory over Gentofte. Although we don't completely control our own destiny, it's still good to know we have a chance. We had won the last five matches heading into the game, and had been playing pretty solidly all around, so we obviously wanted to continue that and get another win over a top four team.

We started the first set off with a lead of a few points and continued to keep it throughout most of the game. Our passing was stable and I had all three options nearly every time in reception, and our hitters did a good job of putting balls away the first time in each rotation. We had a rough patch in the middle of the set where Gentofte was able to run off a few points in a row and tie it up, but when we got around 20 we took control back and finished the set up to win 25-22.

The second set was completely different from the first and wasn't close at all. Gentofte brought in a new outside hitter, but that didn't help things much for them. We blocked really well and had the lead for nearly the entire time. We ended up easily taking the set 25-15.

Heading into the third, we expected Gentofte to put up a better fight than they did in the second, an assumption which turned out to be very accurate. They raised their level of play a bit from the previous set, but unfortunately ours took a step backwards. We made some mistakes we shouldn't have and I think I went away from the things that made us successful in the first two sets. We had the lead at 23-22, but Gentofte got a sideout and a couple points to take the set 23-25.

The fourth started with Dennis and Joakim switched, and our side getting back to the gameplan that helped us win the first two sets. The game was close most of the way, but I never felt any doubt that we would take the set. We definitely did not want to go five with Gentofte, and we were able to refocus and pass and attack well enough to avoid a fifth frame. For me, the key was our blocking in the fourth set. We served tough enough to force them away from the middle, and were able to limit the success of their outsides, which allowed us to take the set 25-22.

I feel like we have had our ups and downs this season in terms of team play, but it feels like we are reaching our peak at the right time. The last couple months have been pretty good, and it is nice to see that reflected in the win-loss record. You can say or think that you are playing well but if you aren't getting the results then it can wear on a team. I think the winning streak has given us a good, positive attitude that makes us believe we can win any game, which will be an important belief to have for the playoffs.

Thanks to Joakim for the video, you can read his thoughts on the game here.

Game v Hvidovre

2008-02-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Game v Middelfart

2008-02-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

Saturday was our final regular season match against Middelfart, and like I mentioned in my last post, I had a good feeling going into the match and didn't expect it to be like the previous times we had faced them. We've actually played them four times this season, losing the two matches that counted (in the elitedivision) and winning the two practice matches (in the pre-season and post Christmas). Say what you will about the fact they were practice matches, but having already beaten them in whatever setting gives you the belief that you can do it again.

The first set started out close, but it definitely felt like we had all the momentum in the match from the beginning. In the opening half of the set, Middelfart was flat and seemed a bit shell-shocked as we came out playing well and winning balls in transition. In the last five points of the set, Dennis and I came in as part of a double switch for Morten and Kesse, and after a couple errors on our part, we sided out and took the set 25-23.

The second set offered more of the same, with each team getting a few points off their own serve and then surrendering a few to the opponent after a sideout. The points we gave up were more often than not due to good plays by Middelfart, as we made few attacking and service errors. Our passing was solid throughout, and we were able to set the ball away from their bigger blockers, something we had trouble with last time. We ended up taking the second set in "extra time" by a score of 28-26.

The third set saw us get in a bit of trouble midway through, and Middelfart opened up a lead of three or four points, the largest they had held all day. Their opposite won a few balls in transition for them and we were never able to completely close the gap. I came in for Morten when we reached about 15, and we were able to get a few points off our own serve from Niels, but ended up dropping the set 23-25.

The fourth set saw Morten back setting again, and this time we pressured Middelfart early into making mistakes. The set was back and forth the entire way, but a few timely blocks by Joakim, Niels, and our middles on their opposite took him out of the game and gave us confidence and momentum to take control of the set and win it 25-23.

As you can tell by the scores of the games, each set was very close, and with the exception of the third, we were always in control in the last five points. I think this was in a large part due to our passing, which was nearly always stable, and gave us the ability to side out well. Our previous game against Middelfart we gave up big runs of points, but this time we limited that and took our own chances when they came to us. It was without a doubt a close, hard fought game on both sides, but when it came down to the critical moments in a set to make a play and change the game, we were up to the task more often than they were.

Our form of late has been pretty good, and it feels like we are really hitting our stride, much as we had earlier in the season before the break for Olympic Qualifiers. This is good news for us, because I think we are a team that rides momentum from match to match, and a two match winning streak for any team is always good news. With the win we are up to fourth in the table, with the set difference putting us just ahead of Arhus. Hopefully we can continue our run of good play this Friday at Arhus and over (yet another) break in game action.

Game v Arhus

2008-02-01T15:36:00.000-08:00

Our game against Arhus Thursday was an important one for a few reasons. We'd lost three matches in a row due to some poor play, and Arhus held a 4 point lead in the table heading into the match. It was also the date that I had set to be ready to return to the court, so I was pretty excited the whole day leading up to the game.

The match started off a bit shaky, reminiscent of our last home game against ASV. We were able to settle down, however, and sided out well for the most part. We had a few runs of trouble in reception, but were able to counter that with some good serving of our own to erase any deficits. We ended up winning fairly comfortably, 25-21.

The second and third sets were a disaster for Arhus. They couldn't do much right, and we were able to get a lot of points off our own serve, especially from Niels, who had to be man of the match for us, with great serving, passing, and attacking. The final scores were 25-16 and 25-11 in the last two sets, numbers which really do tell the whole tale of the games. We definitely caught them on a bad night, and we know we will have to be ready for a different opponent when we visit them in a week's time.

Morten played well and ran a good offense, so there was no need for me to play, but I'm disappointed that I didn't get any time because I feel like I could have used it to shake off my six week break (pardon the pun) of not playing any competitive matches. As much as you try it is hard to simulate the intensity and energy of a match, when everyone is jumping a little bit higher and giving that extra ounce of effort. I feel ready though, and I'm finally used to setting with two fingers taped together, but it still feels a bit weird. I'm looking forward to the Middelfart game Saturday, which should be a good one. I think they overwhelmed us the first two times we played them, but by now we know what to expect and we're playing with good energy and focus, so it should be a good fight. Hopefully I'll have some good news to write about on Monday.

As for my Super Bowl predictions, I think the Patriots are going to take it. I'm rooting for the Giants though because I want Belichick to lose, but it wouldn't be so bad if the Pats won and we got to see history being made. My final score is Pats 34 - Giants 17, and Brady gets his third Super Bowl MVP.

Game v Marienlyst

2008-01-28T05:51:00.000-08:00

We went down to Odense on Saturday for our third match of the season against Marienlyst. We knew what to expect from Marienlyst going into the match, but I was unsure what our side would look like. We were short-handed, and only had nine people fit for the match, with me (finger), Tue (knee) and Joakim (alarm clock) unavailable for various reasons. As I had mentioned in my previous post, we needed to do something good away from home to get some positive momentum going for the final third of the season.

The match started off well for us. Marienlyst was playing with some people in different positions and some new starters on the floor, and we were able to take advantage of that and lots of mistakes on their part in the first set, which we won 25-21.

The second set started off well for us, with a 6-1 lead before Marienlyst called their first time out. They had their best team out on the floor at that point, and they slowly chipped away at our lead, scoring a point or two off their own serve each time they sided out. They tied it up at 15 apiece, and from there went on a 10-3 run to finish us off 18-25.

The third and fourth sets went the same way as the rest of the second set. Their setter gave us a lot of trouble off his serve and we couldn't get much going off our own. At the beginning of the fourth set we missed four of the six serves in the first rotation. The third and fourth sets ended up easily in their favor, 15-25 and 17-25.

It's unfortunate we weren't able to take advantage of the big lead we had in the second set. It was interesting to see how the moment we let up with a couple bad plays and mental errors, Marienlyst was able to jump on it and take control of the set. They are usually a team that celebrates pretty loudly, and they had been relatively quiet for most of the match, quieter than us in fact, but the moment our volume and intensity dropped, theirs rose. Maybe that contributed to the fact that they just overwhelmed us the last two sets, but I'm sure it was more than that. If we had been able to play error-free like we did in the first set, I think it would have been a closer game, because by no means were Marienlyst playing as well as they had the last two times we played them at home.

At any rate, we have to put that match out of our minds now and turn our attention to our weekday game Thursday against Arhus. In what is arguably our most important match of the season thus far, we need a win to close the four point gap between us. Tomorrow is also a big day for me, as I have my checkup with the doctor, so hopefully I get the good news that I can play Thursday.

Games v Gentofte and Middelfart

2008-01-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we went down to Copenhagen to play Gentofte. We had beaten them in 5 the last time we met, in what was a home match for us. I figured the reverse fixture to be more difficult because of our poor form away from home of late, but I still thought we could beat them if we played some solid volleyball.

The first set was tight the whole way, with several lead changes throughout. We got a lot of our points off tough serves that led to overpass kills by our front line, and the final score ended up in our favor, 26-24.

We dropped the second set 22-25, but a late run of points in that set gave us some momentum to begin the next. We took advantage and in the third set lead for nearly the whole time, including a 24-19 lead. Several consecutive errors on our part let them back into the set, which we ended up dropping 29-31.

The complete collapse in the third set gave all the momentum back to Gentofte, and we trailed early in the fourth. However, we strung together a few runs of points from our own serve and got some good blocks to bring things level at around 15. I made a comment that this was what had happened last time we played Gentofte, so things were still looking good for us in my mind. However, Gentofte settled down and took control, winning the fourth easily, 20-25.

I think we have to feel this is a match we could have won. We did a good job of getting touches on the block and digging balls on defense, but in the end we couldn't put balls away in transition, which ultimately cost us a lot of potential points on our own serve. Failing to put those balls away allowed Gentofte to stay in the match, and give them credit for taking advantage of their opportunities.

The following Tuesday night we headed down to Middelfart for a make-up match that originally was scheduled during the Olympic volleyball qualifiers for Denmark. Middelfart was fresh off a win over Marienlyst (that few likely saw coming), so they had been playing some good volleyball lately without a doubt.

They ended up beating us in three, 18-25, 20-25, and 20-25. There were points in each set where the score was close, but ultimately Middelfart would pull away. The biggest problem for us was that there was at least one instance in each set where Middelfart went on a run of five or more points; in the third set they scored nine in a row.

I'd be interested to see the blocking statistics from this game, because that is definitely how they scored so many consecutive points. From my thinking back on the match, I would say they got around 15, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was higher. On our side of the net, our passing was pretty good for the match, but we didn't get much going in the middle, which I think is our best advantage over Middelfart. That led to a lot of two-man blocks on the outside and points for the opposition.

With two frustrating losses (for very different reasons) in a row, we have eleven days to prepare for an away game at Marienlyst (who is playing in the pokalfinal against Middelfart Sunday). I think it will be an important match for many reasons, perhaps most of all because we need to turn in a convincing performance away from home after three poor away matches (counting back to Hvidovre).

The last two matches have been difficult for me to watch, because I feel like I could make a difference if I was able to play. I can move my finger (nearly) into a fist without pain, but it still hurts like hell if anything moves it sideways or even if it gets jostled too much. High fives from Jonas don't feel too great either... I'm hoping to be ready for our home match against Århus, so keep your fingers crossed and we will see what the doctor says next Monday.

Best Possible News

2008-01-07T06:17:00.000-08:00

After preparing myself to have surgery Monday morning, I showed up to the hospital and the hand specialist/surgeon said that I was not going to have it after all. According to her, there are two small, hard bones on the big knuckle on the palm-side of each of your fingers. When my finger broke, one of those small bones came apart from the finger (which would have been the chunk of bone I saw in the x-ray). If she were to go in and perform surgery, it would cause significant damage to the ligaments and tendons of the finger, so it turns out the best solution is to let the finger heal naturally.

I have a splint over the top of my finger that prevents me from bending it backwards or sideways at all. Every two hours I am supposed to try to make a fist and bend my pinky forward as much as I can. Right now there isn't much movement because it is still really swollen, but she says I should start seeing some progress soon. I have to wear the splint for three weeks, and I'll go see her again in two weeks to have a checkup. I'm happy to not have had the surgery, and things ended up working out as best they could, all things considered. I've started drinking lots of milk and taking more vitamins to help it heal, and I'm open to suggestions, so if you know any miracle bone-growth home remedies feel free to leave some comments...

Bad News

2008-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

I had a good Christmas break, visiting Spain and France with friends from home. However, during warm ups in the second practice back (Friday) while playing defense in pepper, a ball hit at my chest put my left pinky finger sideways at about a 45 degree angle. I had Morten put it back into place and iced it and put it into a splint. A day of rest saw no improvement however, so today I went to the hospital to have a doctor look at it and take some x-rays. The x-rays showed a sizeable chunk of bone floating near my big knuckle and the doctor says I need to have surgery Monday, and I will be out at least four weeks.

Game v ASV

2007-12-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

We had a home game against ASV Sunday, and going into the match I had no idea what to expect from ourselves or ASV. We had a poor game against Hvidovre a week before, and training was up and down for us in the days leading up to the game.

The first several points of the first set went well, but then all of a sudden it felt like the match we played a week ago. Balls dropping on defense, poor communication, poor reception, and mental errors all around. In a flash we were in a 5 or 6 point hole, and I think the general feeling among the team was "not again." The coaches tried to mix things up and changed Morten and I after our second timeout, with ASV leading about 14-20. Things didn't get much better as ASV ended up getting an easy win, 18-25.

Morten stayed in for the second set, and our team pulled it together and played like a completely different side than the one in the first. Dennis was able to get his jump serve going and we started off with an early lead of 3 or 4 points. Fleming and Morten Smith were able to get some blocks on their middle, who had been troubling us in the first set, and we backed that up with some great digs from Jonas and scrappy defensive play from everyone. ASV closed the gap a few times but were never in front as we played some solid volleyball from start to finish. Tue came in for Niels midway through the set and gave us some stable passing and good attacking on the outside. The only negative in the set was a broken play where Fleming and Kesse both went up for the ball and Kesse came down on Fleming's ankle. The physiotherapist says it's a sprain, and hopefully it will heal by the time we come back from our break. Joakim came in for Kesse to finish the set, which we won comfortably, 25-18.

The third set started off well again, with Morten getting a couple aces and ASV having some reception troubles early. We had a quick 5-1 lead and we sided out well enough to keep it for nearly the entire set. Our passing settled down for the most part and Morten was able to have 3 options most of the time out of reception. Niels had switched over to opposite for this set and he got us quite a few points off his serve, which helped to secure the win for us in the third, 25-21.

The fourth set continued in the same manner as the second and third. Some good service pressure saw us jump out to a 3-4 point lead as ASV was forced to go to the outsides and backrow, which led to a lot of hitting errors on their part. Our consistent siding out kept a comfortable gap between the two teams as Tue continued to put nearly every ball away on the outside. Søvsø, the backup opposite, was subbed in at match point and ended up blocking the outside from ASV to give us the win, 25-18.

That this was a good win for us would be an understatement. After a bad loss last week, we needed something positive to take us into the winter break and help us get out of the funk we had been in. It was a great team game, with everyone making a contribution on the court. I think the reason the first set was so bad is that we were playing as a bunch of individuals, with no cohesion or unity in our movements. The transformation of our team from the first serve, that saw 6 people on the court, to the last play of the match, where 11 teammates were working together and contributing to a victory, was great to see. As a team, pulling yourself out of a hole, especially in the middle of a match, can be a turning point in a season. I'm not suggesting we're going to run the table the rest of the way, but maybe it gives us a bit more confidence or focus that eventually changes the outcome of some match down the road.

As a result of the win, we now sit in 4th place in the league table, consistent with our goal of finishing top 4 for the season. We can look back on the first half of the season and see a few missed opportunities, but overall we have to be happy that we have done some good things and made improvements week to week. Our next match is January 12th against Gentofte, so it will be a while until my next volley update. Glædelig jul og godt nytår.

Game v Hvidovre

2007-12-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

We went down to Copenhagen Sunday, leaving from Aalborg at 7am, and getting in around 1. It is a long and boring ride, but I managed to sleep for most of it. The team wandered around the complex (home to the international powerhouse that is Danish curling!) where the game was being held and waited for our 3 o'clock gametime.

The previous game against Hvidovre we killed them, scoring a ton of points off our serves and rolling to an easy victory. Their form had been good at home, however, as they had taken a set off Marienlyst recently. The also had some new players, including a new setter who seemed more experienced than the previous one. I felt good going into the game; I didn't expect it to be easy, their result against Marienlyst suggested as much, but I did think we would win if we could play as well as we did against Marienlyst three weeks before.

The first play of the game, I set back to Dennis, who waffled the ball, but still got the kill, with the ball landing just inside the back line. That would turn out to be one of the few times in the match luck was on our side. Our passing was shaky from the start, and I had trouble getting the middle going early. Like I've said before, if you can't get the middle going early, it's hard to come back to it later because the other team will be camping out on it anytime you get a decent pass. Hvidovre also blocked well in the first set, allowing them to score a lot of points off their own serve. They ended up cruising to a win, 16-25.

The second set had more of the same, unfortunately, with poor passing and little rhythm in our offense, and some good play by Hvidovre. Dennis and Joakim were switched, but we continued to miss a lot of serves and not put a lot of pressure on them early in the set. However, as it progressed we improved and I was able to get Morten some balls in the middle and I felt more in sync with the hitters. We managed to close the gap a bit, but we had given up too many points in the beginning and ended up losing, 21-25.

The third set saw us finally beginning to play some real volleyball. The errors were reduced (but still not eliminated) on our side, and we were able to get some float serves on their libero, who had trouble with them and thus gave their setter fewer options. They had been running the middle pretty well all day, and forcing them to the outsides definitely helped us win the set. We were down late in the set, 22-24, with me serving and Hvidovre having match ball. Joakim was subbed in and came up with a big block to make it 23-24, and Dennis and Fleming got another to tie it up. Two plays later, we dug a transition ball and I set back to Dennnis who killed it to win the set for us 26-24.

After winning the 3rd we had all the momentum in the match, and Hvidovre looked on their heels, but we couldn't take advantage of it at all. Early in the 4th we were down by 5 or 6 points, and all the momentum we had was lost. However, we were able to run off several points on our own serve a couple times and we created energy to get back into the set with some great kills and blocks by Niels, who had switched to opposite. As our coach pointed out, they didn't look comfortable in close situations at the end of the match, as evidenced by their two missed serves at the end of the 4th when they had match ball. Two questionable calls by the referees (more on them later), including the ball that would have won us the set, put Hvidovre in a position to win the match again, at 25-26. A hitting error on the last play ended up giving a victory to them and was a fitting end to the day for us.

Not to make any excuses, but the referees made decisions that changed the course of the game. We were having trouble with our new jerseys, which kept coming untucked and hitting the net, but there were at least three phantom net calls against us. The first was on me on a block I made (with the shirt tucked in, by the way), the second was on a set ball Dennis put back over the net, and the third was a ball Nils hit down the line the ref claimed also hit the antenna. I still cannot understand why Danish volleyball doesn't have line judges. There's no way referees can see those types of plays with any kind of accuracy. Also, there was a ball that was such an obvious touch on Hvidovre that they went back into serve receive, but the ref was determined to give the point to them until he changed his call when he saw Hvidovre waiting in reception. To me, the worst part of it was the fact they were inconsistent. A ball that one play would be called a double would in the next be perfectly OK. If you're a bad ref, you're bad for both teams, but being inconsistent is inexcusable. They are certainly not the reason we lost; we managed that on our own. But as I sit and think back on the match, the plays the refs made are some of the ones that stand out the most, which is unfortunate, because that's not volleyball.

All the progress that we made over the past 3-4 matches felt like it went down the toilet Sunday. The 3 weeks off definitely did us no favors. I felt like I didn't run the offense as quickly as I could to the outsides, and for whatever reason there were not a lot of good balls for me to give to Fleming when he was in the front. There were a ton of unforced errors on our part: missed serves, shanked passes, net violations, etc. that if we could have eliminated would have made it a completely different ball game. The match felt like the ones we played two months ago, when we were still early in the season and not everyone was on the same wavelength. I hope the Christmas break does not pose the same problem for us, because when we come back our first matches are Gentofte and Middlefart. The best thing we can take from this match is a renewed focus in practice this week so we can finish off 2007 with a win against ASV on Sunday. It is a home match, where we have played well recently, and should hopefully be just what the doctor ordered to get us back on track.

On a positive note from the weekend, my knee is coming along well, and I played without pain on Sunday. I'm a little sore today, but nothing major, and I think the knee brace I've been wearing has helped.

Game v Marienlyst

2007-11-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

We played Marienlyst Sunday, and this was a game that I had been looking forward to for some time. Unfortunately though, I started coming down with something on Thursday, and I was really sick on Friday. I ended up laying in bed all day, running a fever yet being freezing cold at the same time, with a sore throat and headache to boot. I felt a little better Saturday, and by Sunday, luckily, I was well enough to play, but it would have to have been something major to keep me out of that game.

Marienlyst came in hooting and hollering like they usually do during warm-ups, and their Brazilian didn't manage to hit the roof, which I laughed at. He still hits harder than anyone on our team, but I thought it was a moral victory for us that he didn't hit the ceiling. I think our team felt confident going into the game. We knew we had a full line-up and we had had some good training that week. On the flip-side, Marienlyst looked a little over-confident, which is somewhat understandable after demolishing us in the previous meeting.

The first set started off great, we got points off blocks and counter-attacks, and took advantage of errors by Marienlyst. They missed a lot of serves in the early going and we sided out on the first ball pretty well, which was important. We opened up a lead of five points midway through the first set, and kept it until near the end. We had some trouble with service reception, and they were able to close the gap and eventually tie it up at 23-23. We had set point, but they were able to side out, and they ended up finishing us off for set point with a block, 24-26.

Despite losing a tough set and some momentum, I felt good going into the second set. We were playing well with the exception of a few points here and there, and I thought that we definitely could take it to them. Our middles were basically unstoppable in the first set, and I probably gave about 80% of the balls to them. The second set started off evenly, with the score being close most of the way, until we ran into a rough patch about a third of the way through. There was some miscommunication between me and Dennis, and then a little later we got stuck in a rotation where they ran off four or five points in a row, and suddenly Marienlyst had a five or six point lead. We managed a few points off our serve, but not enough to get back into the set, and we lost the second 20-25.

The third set started off a bit rough, and they opened up a 4-1 lead before we called a timeout. We settled back down and evened things up playing close most of the way. We had a few good runs of points off counter-attacks, including an amazing one-handed block by Kesse on the other middle. I also was finally able to cause some reception trouble for Marienlyst with my serve, something I hadn't been able to do all day, and had been frustrating me. Our middles continued to put nearly every ball away, but Marienlyst counter-attacked well and ended up taking the set 21-25.

This was definitely the best service reception game that we have had, despite the rough patches. With those moments excluded, I had nearly three options every time and was more than happy to feed the middles, who played great. It was nice to have Goat back, and I think our middles are one of our best advantages against other teams in the league. I can't remember a match I have played in that I set the middles so much. Normally when you run the middle so often they start getting two blockers, but that didn't happen much, and when it did, it didn't matter. They played really great I thought. That being said, I should have involved the outsides a bit more to help keep them in rhythm, but it's always hard as a setter to go away from someone who is so hot and winning so many balls. I was a bit disappointed with my physical performance; I felt a bit sluggish at times and like I didn't have my legs beneath me, which was frustrating.

I think that even though it was a disappointing loss, especially having had set point in the first, it was another positive step forward for the team. Even though it is completely cliche, we have gotten better each week, and that is really all you can ask of a team. We had some mental errors here and there, but they were less frequent then previous weeks. Our passing was also great, and much improved over previous weeks. I feel completely in sync with everyone in the reception offense and pretty good out of transition as well. As long as we keep building on these things we'll be fine.

We'll be missing three guys from the team for the next two weeks as they go to Copenhagen to play for the national team and the Olympic qualifiers for Denmark. This means we have another long break again until our next match, which is in three weeks against Hvidovre. It is frustrating to have such a long time off; we have only three matches in 8 weeks, so we will have to have some good training sessions and stay focused.

It's Snowing Here Already...

2007-11-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

Game v Gentofte

2007-11-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

We played Gentofte on Saturday night, and they are a team that will be one of our main competitors for the top 4 positions in the league. They are a pretty young team, but solid all around. We were without Goat still, who is nursing a sore back, so Morten Smith got the start at middle again and filled in well. Gentofte's setter started their team out well, serving for about 6 points in a row, and they opened up a lead that we would not be able to overcome. They counterattacked one or two balls in that run, but the rest were just straight blocks. A couple of rotations later I was brought in for Morten to try and get some speed to the outsides and mix things up, and despite the fact we played even with them the rest of the way, the early run we conceded turned out to be too much, and we lost 20-25. In the set I had a double called on me for the first time in a couple years on a ball that I just completely mis-judged. I thought it was coming closer to the net, and I ended up taking the ball behind my head and somewhere outside my shoulder, and it was pretty much guaranteed to be a double. Oh well.

The second set saw Joakim come in for Dennis at the 2nd outside position and Nils move to the first outside. Dennis and Tue came in to serve at different points in the set, and overall we played much more solid. It was close going, with both teams siding out the first ball nearly every time, but we were able to get a few counter-attacks and put them away without too much of a problem, 25-19.

I felt much more confident going into the third, having played the entire second set, and felt I had a good rhythm running the offense out of reception. I had established the middle with Fleming and was connecting with the outsides and getting them some 1 v 1. Gentofte, however, brushed off a poor second set for them and came out playing much better after some personnel changes. They moved some of their players around so that they could have a right side backrow attack when the setter was in the front, which probably made the difference for them. The set was close all the way with Gentofte taking it 25-27.

The fourth set saw the same lineup as the 2nd and third, but we had some reception troubles early and Gentofte was out to about a 4 point lead. You could feel the energy of the team starting to fall, and things were not looking good. However, the coaches made a substitution and brought Dennis in for Joakim, and he and Fleming proceeded to block the opposite from Gentofte about 5 times in a row, and all of a sudden, we were back in it with all the momentum. We had some great defensive plays from Jonas and some good blocking from Fleming, and we ended up taking the set (25-22) and all the momentum heading into the final frame.

We came out to an early lead on the energy of the previous set. The lead got as high as 4, and we were up 6-2 when Gentofte called a timeout. However, they rallied after the break and proceeded to block Nils 3 times in a row, which gave them the lead at the switch, 8-6. I was hesitant to set him again, but he had been winning balls in his matchup v the Gentofte setter, so I went with it and he got blocked again. I was feeling the pressure to get the ball to someone else, so Dennis switched out of reception so I could set him out of the back row. He ended up getting us the sideout, and it was a ballgame again. I set Kesse on the next sideout, and then proceeded to set Dennis as much as I could, who was front row now and had been hitting well. It turns out I didn't need to set him that much as our team decided it would be a good time to put on a blocking clinic for Gentofte. We must have gotten 6 of the last 8 points off blocks, including the match point, when Fleming blocked their middle to seal the victory, 15-12.

It was certainly an exciting game for the fans to watch, and it was definitely a fun match to play in, especially the come-back we had in the 4th and 5th sets. I've never seen a team block so many balls in such crucial moments of a game. There is no doubt our blocking won us the match; it turned the tide in the 4th set and put it away in the 5th. I'm feeling a lot more confident running the sideout offense as well now too. This was by far the best game I have had for the club. I am getting to know the hitters and starting to recognize who needs to be set when in the game. That is probably the most difficult thing to get when you join a new team, and I had it pretty easy in Santa Cruz where I had been for 3 years. The next step is for me to get comfortable in counter-attack, but I think I'm making some progress there already after some good connections with Fleming from dug balls that were off the net. So all in all, a great win for the team, and we now sit at 6 points, tied for second in points but 3rd overall due to set differential. We have next weekend off, and then a home match against Marienlyst on the 18 November.

My Apartment

2007-10-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

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.