Round Ten: The Rematch

After a successful bronze medal match against Örkelljunga in the Grand Prix it was probably a good thing that they would be our first opponent of the second half on Sunday. We sent a pretty good message through a hard-fought five set win and all we had to do was continue that play on Sunday to get our first three points of the new year. That's exactly what we did.

OVK is a very solid team that started out the season on fire by winning their first seven matches including a sweep of us in week two. It seemed like they would run away with the points title at that point and be the undisputed number one seed in the playoffs. They have hit a rough patch recently though and have slipped into third place. We, on the other hand, are a team headed in the right direction. This would be our second league match with our highly successful new lineup and we knew there was no reason we shouldn't take three points home on Sunday night.

Set one started out just like we thought it would, in a battle. Both teams were playing really aggressively and it was a battle all the way to the end of the first set. Eventually we got out on top with leads of 16-15 and 21-19 and were able to finish the set strong with a 25-23 win. It was probably the most aggressive we've been all year and it paid off greatly. Set two was arguably our best all year. We jumped on top of them right away, leading 8-6 and the 16-11 and never looking back. They couldn't get anything going offensively and their frustration showed as the game went on. It was nice to be on that side of a set for once. We went on to win 25-18 and take a 2-0 lead into the ten minute halftime break.

While the ten minute break allows some time to rest and regroup for a team down 0-2, it also kills all momentum for a team up 2-0 and makes winning the third set that much more challenging. We came out flat in the third set as the ball started bouncing their way a little more. We lost 25-20 and had to regroup before a crucial fourth set. There's no way we could allow them to push the match to five on our home court., and we didn't.

We dominated the fourth set pretty easily, jumping out to leads of 8-4 and 16-10 before finishing even stronger at 25-15. They couldn't seem to do anything right, and even their subs couldn't get passed our block. It was definitely the best all around match we played all year. We blocked 14 balls in four sets and touched a ton more which allowed our defense to pick up a ton of digs. We also only had five hitting errors the whole match, a great improvement over pretty much every match we've played all year.

I played well and am getting more and more comfortable in the middle. I had 12 points on six blocks and six kills and touched a ton of balls blocking, which goes a long way to frustrating the opponents hitters.

Up next is a road game against Linköping on Sunday, hopefully continuing in the right direction. Thanks for reading!

If you want to watch the match it will be online at volleykanalen.se for the rest of the season!

Grand Prix Update

After a two week break for the holidays, we finally got to play in the Swedish Grand Prix. Qualifying for this mini-tournament was our main goal for the first half of the season. To qualify, you must be in the top four teams in the Eliterien. If you've been keeping up with my blog you know that we barely squeaked in on the last day of the season's first half. This was also the first time since 2005 that Tierp qualified for it, so it was a pretty big deal for everyone involved. The two-day tournament is held in a town about three hours away called Katrineholm, it's a little bigger than Tierp and seeing actual stop lights was kind of weird.

We ended up being the fourth seed, so up first was first place Sollentuna on Wednesday night. Sollentuna is a team that we know we can beat. A couple months ago we played them at their gym and lost in a four set match that we definitely should have won. We lost sets one and four after leading 21-18 in both, so we really just need to learn to finish games off against them. They really don't do anything too special. They run a relatively fast offense and their main guys are one of their outsides and their Brazilian opposite, who is not very impressive at all.

We played a lineup that we haven't played with all year. Kyle and I were in the middle again, Eric Simon played opposite, Erik Brandsjo and Andy Wahlstrom played the outsidess with Peter setting and Martin Molynerd at libero. We started out playing pretty well but couldn't close out the close games against them as usual. We lost in three but it was a battle. So it was on to play Orkelljunga in the third place match.

The third place match was meaningless for all intents and purposes, but we are playing Orkelljunga this Sunday in our first match of the second half and a win against them would send a good message to them and the rest of the league. However, we would be playing without one of our best players, Kyle Masterson, who sprained his foot badly in the Sollentuna match when one of their middles came way under the net (not surprisingly, the refs missed the call). So it would be Matti Sandelin and I in the middle with the rest of the lineup the same.

So far this year, I'd say it was one of the most fun matches we have played. The whole five set match was back and forth. It was pretty impressive to watch and a lot of fun to play in. They took the first set before we battled back to win the second and third. The fourth set was a close battle to the end with them pulling out the victory to push it to five sets. We jumped out to the lead in the fifth set, leading 8-6 at the side switch and it was back and forth from there before we won 17-15. I finished the match with nine kills and three blocks so it was productive day for me. I'm slowly getting back into this middle thing but so far it's been a lot of fun. As long as I'm up early the rest of the offense will be very good for the rest of the season. And with Andy and Molle passing, we should have a great second half.

The rematch with Orkelljunga kicks it off on Sunday at five o'clock here. If you want to watch the match is the featured one for the online broadcast. Here's the link, set your alarms for 10 AM US Central time:

Tierp - Orkelljunga

Tack for reading! See you online!

Grand Prix Broadcast!

Wednesday night is our first match of the 2011 Swedish Grand Prix and luckily for you it will be broadcast live online! The semifinal match, which pits us against Sollentuna, starts at 6:30 PM CET, 11:30 AM Chicago time. Here's the link for the website:

http://www.volleykanalen.se/