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It is with great pleasure and pride that I get to write this games review.  After the longest stretch of losses I think any of us have ever experienced, we finally earned our first win in the Eliteserien!!!  

Our previous losses with Sollentuna always left us with a bad taste in our mouths.  They have always been a team that we knew we could beat if we played to our total potential.  However this hasn’t always been the case during our prior match ups.  Saturday however, our day finally came.

After an extremely tough week for the Degerfors club, the team suffered a lot of negative blows.  But often through bad times, a team comes out stronger despite such negativity, which is exactly what happened with us.  The team fought for each other and played with great focus and intensity.  We came together like never before and truly played with heart and passion.  Makenzie had an exceptional attacking game for us by contributing 29 points.  Olivia played an extremely strong defense and reception that greatly contributed to our success.  Dani was very smart with her setting choices, which allowed all of our players to put Sollentuna in a difficult position.  Our middles Vilma and Sofie read the game well, and did an excellent blocking job for us.  Elin stepped out of her comfort zone and played a new position for us which was extremely important.  And Emma did a fabulous job supporting us throughout it all.  

During the first two sets Sollentuna came out quite strong.  We struggled with our reception and found ourselves constantly chasing them in the score.  Although both sets were quite tight, 25-20, and 25-23 they managed to close them out on us each time.  During our ten minute break between the second and third set, we discussed that we had to win at least one set as our goal.  We needed to make them chase us for a change.  We were playing very good volleyball, but they were still managing to play a little bit better.  During the third set we really stepped things up a notch and achieved what we set out to do.  We all truly believed that a fourth set was achievable and then we set our sights on a fifth.

The fourth set however found us down with a substantial lead in Sollentuna’s favour.  Yet despite the score being 17-11 we still knew we were capable of pushing them to a fifth.  We strategically avoided their Libero while serving, who had been doing an excellent job in their reception.  This allowed for a more predictable setting pattern once the reception wasn’t perfect and we managed to find ourselves back in the game with them.  In the end both teams battled point for point and we managed to finally come out on top and play our first five set match of the season.  Needless to say the entire team was absolutely ecstatic and the energy was electric.  

The team had such a powerful momentum going into the fifth that despite Sollentuna’s excellent defense, we were not being stopped.  We managed to serve tough, attack well, and block smart.  We found ourselves with a 13-6 lead and could taste the victory at hand.  Sollentuna never stopped fighting though and really gave us a run for our money.  They pushed back, defended amazing balls, and really made a game out of it.  In the end we managed to close it out with calmness and confidence despite the immense pressure we were feeling.

It certainly was an extremely intense game, and immensely gratifying finally earning a win after such a long streak of losses.  We would like to thank all of our supporters for always standing by us throughout this season, and we hope to carry this momentum forward in our last three games of the year.