Victory for the StormTWOopers!

On the grim Saturday afternoon before Halloween, we had our first official battle against Apollo Heren 4. After a practice match during the preparation tournament (which ended in a tie) we were ready to show them who was the better team. To get ready before the match, a lunch was prepared by Darth Trainer at his house, with the help of Bastiaan. 

Once in the hall everybody was getting hyped up and ready, and we were ready to score some points. 
Starting up the first set did not go flawless, A lot of mistakes were made, especially service mistakes. Because of this we were starting to see a disadvantage of around 3 to 4 points. Nearing the end of the set, the mindset changed. We got back in our game and closely won the first set with 25-23.

With renewed energy and enthousiasm from the first set, we started the second set with a lot of energy and good vibes. Good service pressure and motivation from the bench quickly gave the advantage. Halfway through the set the point difference was around 6 points and we kept up the good pace. The opponent's Libero did not have an answer to our good serves and with this the second set was triumphantly won with 25-17.

In the 3rd set, the opponent quickly reacted and switched in their reserve libero. This, in combination with a lot of service mistakes resulted in a disadvantage once again. Darth Trainer tried to close this gap by making some substitutions, sadly to no avail. After being behind around 5 points the difference was too big and the 3rd set was lost 25-20.

But there was no time to cry about it! We still had one more set to go. Everyone was motivated once again (mostly because we didn't want a 5th set) and we started off well with a 5-2 lead. After this the opponent came back and it was a really close game. We almost lost a stormtwooper in the process (Thomas hit Quinten with his elbow), but we still managed to keep ahead at least a little bit. Motivation en enthousiasm was high, especially after Wybren's and Niels' amazing defensive skills gave us a crucial point. At match point (24-23) we were on the recieving side. After a great pass close on the net, the outside hitter on the opposite side thought the ball would go middle and block too soon. This gave Rick a free ball without a block, which he hit straight down with all his might to give us our first victory!

And to celebrate our victory we of course have a spooky limerick

Wij doen niet meer anders dan winnen

Halloween kan nu echt beginnen

Tijd voor een spookfeest

Want nergens wordt meer voor gevreesd

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