First match day (Degerfors)

B team players ready to receive the serve

Last Sunday (10/10), the Gothia Dam B team started into the season (div 3 Mellersta Damer). Having put together a well-balanced squad with Merima, Caroline, Nadia, Anastasia, Hanna, Eva, Chiara and Federica, we headed out together towards the North-east. Well prepared and motivated, we started our 3.5 hours road trip that had some little excitement on the way. Although we had to start early, the spirit was good and a quick coffee break on the way lightened everybody's mood.

After a friendly welcome at a nice gym in Degerfors, we prepared ourselves for the games. Our opponent was a very young but highly motivated team with some very promising talents. In a slightly weird setup, we had to play both our league games one after another as there was no third team to play as it usually is.

The first match started a bit rocky and we showed some nerves at the beginning. Having to catch up a 7 point lead, the team shook off the nervousness and we managed to get back into the game with several good serve sequences. After the first set was won 25:18, we gained more confidence and managed to play more solid. Our opponents struggled with some of our strong and precise serves which gained us comfortable leads in the following two sets and an overall win of the first match of the season (3:0 / 25:18, 25:8, 25:21) 

Having to face the same team in the second match again was mentally challenging as we didn't want to get overconfident. While we got a better start into the second match, the receivers of Degerfors C adapted to our strong serves better while we were also struggling with some really good serves and long balls into the corners. The first set got really tight but we managed to keep cool and won 25:23. This win gave us new confidence and seemed to have some moral downfall on our young opponents. The rest of the match was again strongly decided by serve sequences that gained us the upper hand and another 3:0 victory (25:23, 25:12, 25:11). While this was a perfect start into the season, it also showed us what we need to work on to improve.

Next game will come in three weeks in Karlstad.

Coach Thomas