Gents 1 lost their first set, but continue still undefeated

Before we begin, I’d like to take a moment and dedicate a paragraph to our star middle player, Martin. Martin is a great middle, he is there at the most important moments and spikes hard and strong, not to mention his amazing blocking. He recently went through a very unfortunate happening in training and will be out of our lines for some time. All the readers of this blog are with you, Martin, and wish you a quick recovery. The other middles will try to fill your place, which is not an easy thing to do. You’ll be playing with us again in no time!

On the 23rd of October the fighters of Gents 1 were faced against an unknown opponent, Bovo HS 1, from a different pool of promotie class than H2 and H3 are from. This was our first cup match round with eliminations. We did not know what to think of the opponents so we treated them like any other opponent and were ready for a tough matchup.

The first set started off well. We were scoring most of the balls. Max even hit that fast and strong that the opponents could not get out of the way for the ball that was very obviously going out. The opponents made a lot of mistakes and with the combination that everybody did well, we finished the first set off strong with a score of 25:11.

The second set we began with another rotation of players, so that everybody could play and get some game experience. However, there was some confusion on the court and sometimes some questionable choices from the setter made the beginning of the set a bit bumpy and more difficult. The vibes were not the same as they were in the first set. The opponents were defending well and not making way less mistakes on attacking, which made our life and winning the set more difficult. We were down at 20:23 and things were not great. We made a nice comeback, however it was not enough to win the set. In the end we lost our first set of the season with a score of 24:26.

The third set we were angry and went at them with everything we had. The set began well. Our things were working and we stayed ahead. The opponent made some interesting changes, which we believe did not really help them come closer to winning, but that is up to their coach to decide. We kept a good level and finished the set off with a solid 25:20 win. 

The fourth set everybody, who had not yet gotten playing time, went in. We showed that not only the starting line-up is strong but that the level in Gents 1 is in general high and that everybody who Monica has chosen for the team deserves to be there. Everybody played well, our fighting spirit was high and the win was secured with a strong score of 25:18. A good performance from everybody.

This weekend we will be facing Rivo Rijssen HS 1, who we do not like the most. Be there to see an epic battle.