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Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A 1/3 Season Recap
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Match v Gentofte
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.
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.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Back to the Blog
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.
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.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Match v Middelfart
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.
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.
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