Clash of the Titans (Part 2)

March 1st, the day everyone cirkeled red in their agenda’s, was finaly here. The match of the season, the clash of the titans, the summum of third division volleyball, the kingmaker, or in short: The match Harambee Gents 1 against Apollo 8 Gents 1. A reunion of old friends, former teammates and as of this season, sworn rivals.

Two weeks ago, we played the first leg of this match, in the godforsaken Borne. As you might now, we unfortunately lost 3-1 and lost our momentum in the race for eternal glory (or the championship). So today had to be the day to take that momentum back. Our last big chance to come back in the fight for top spot in our third division.

With this energy we took up the gloves for this epic fight. Although this wasn’t a homeweekend, the stands were full of lovely, enthusiastic supporters to cheer us on to victory. Thanks you all, I don’t know were we would be without you!

So on to the match itself. We started sharp, ready to go for every ball in defence, and relentless in attacking. But so were they. Point after point was traded, up until the big points. When it was most needed, he was there: our libero turned outside hitter Marijn came through with a devestating service streak to win us the first set, 25-20.

The crowd got even more excited, a comeback in the championship race was really possible. And Wybren took that energy and turned it into his powerfull jumpserve to get us a 5-0 lead in the match. Although Apollo closed the gap a little, our superior blocking kept us in the game. At one point they leveled the score to 16-16, but from there the crowd made a difference in our advantage to win the second set as well, 25-20!

But the third set proved to  be a different story. Apollo took their last chance for a win in this match to heart and started to play exceptional. Combine that with more unforced errors on our side and a loss was the result. 23-25.

This made us furious. We needed to win to stay in the race. So we got back up and played argually our best volleyball this season so far. One brilliant save after another, attacking both extremely powerful and cunning. There was nothing left for Apollo to do than to fall on the canvas, knock-out in the fourth set! 25-21.

To celebrate this marvelous win, we brought some boardgames to play in the canteen. With beer, a lot of beer. And when there was no beer left in the canteen, we took off with almost the whole team to the VB, to drink more beer. I would love to tell you about all the fun and embarrasing things that happened there, but to be honest, I cannot remember anything anymore. Be safe with alcohol kids!

And so we are back in the race for eternal glory. It will be a thrilling end of the season, which may not be concluded until the very last match of the season. Stay tuned for the rest of our journey!

We starten de match met wat dromen

Die konden de Borners voorkomen

Maar wat speelden we goed

Met traan zweet en bloed

Ze konden aan ons toorn niet ontkomen!