Sad 3:1 victory against Vips Bardot H2

On the 8th of March, a week after the game against Apollo H1, where the fighters of H1 got revenge after the previous game against our closest rivals, the H1 men were back against Vips Bardot H2 and our old companion Yuri. In our heads we thought that the game was going  to  be “easy” as the last time we faced them at their own home court, we beat them 4:0, with them not getting more than 18 points in any of the sets.

However, the game did not turn out to be as simple as we thought. We were truly struggling in keeping our level high and made simple communication, defence and attacking mistakes. We were ahead by 3-4 points the whole set until we were not able to do anything anymore. We gave away our lead and were tied. This gave our opponents enough of a motivation boost to not let go anymore. We stopped believing and became nervous, which you could also see from the atmosphere on the field. The first set ended up going to our opponents. This was something new to us as we haven’t lost the first set to anybody except for Apollo, nevertheless to a last place team in the standings.

After that we were fired up and made the necessary changes. The second set was still quite a battle and we could not fully shake off our opponents, however this time they were unable to stay in the same pace with us. The second set we won, tying the set score 1:1.

The third set we began really well, we were fighting for every ball regardless of the score. In addition, the things that were previously working for the opponent were no longer working. We improved in all the areas and played a set of volleyball you would expect to see from a prospective third division champion. We finished the set with a very dominant 25:10 victory.

The logical thing after a stomp in a set would be to continue in the same manner, which we somewhat did, however not with such a great score difference. The vibes were once again falling a bit and you could see that volleyball is a game where being a team that has fun, is truly focused and wants to fight for every ball makes a big difference. We played a solid last set ending the game with a 3:1 victory.

It didn’t feel like a victory however, as the race for the championship continues and every point is important. This sets us in a bit of a disadvantage going into the last 3 games. However nothing is impossible and we are going to have to work harder and show our best game from now onwards.