Second match day (Karlstad)

B girls team after the matches with big smiles

Last Sunday (31/10), the Gothia B girls team was heading out to Karlstad for our second match day of the season. Missing a libero, our squad was all in blue with Eva, Nadia, Hannah, Maria, Federica, Matilda and Linnea (see picture; left to right). In a good mood and motivated, we started our 3.5 hours journey. Of course, some coffee on the way was mandatory to wake up the spirits.

At arrival, the first game of the day was almost over when Karlstad B beat Trollhättan B decisively 3:0. It was a match day of B teams and we started with facing Trollhättan B who we last played in a friendly match a year ago. Our opponents - a young and very motivated team - was strong in keeping the ball up. We still needed to find into the game and fell slightly behind early in the first set. Keeping cool the serves went back and forth a lot and we stayed close to our opponents managing to defend a set ball and gaining the upper hand winning the first set 26:24. This boosting our confidence, we started to get into the game mode better and had nice combinations with solid digs, precise sets and good attacks. We started strong in the second set but lost focus a bit with longer win and losing point sequences but managed to win 25:19. In the third set, our opponents fell slightly apart and a long serve sequence of 14 points in a row by the player of the match - Nadia - made our 3:0 victory perfect (26:24, 25:19, 25:4). 

After a short break, we faced the hosting team Karlstad B, also a young and very energetic team. We started with a good team spirit and managed to pull away half way through the first set. The game had very good rallies and we had to put effort in our attacks to make points, many coming over the right side where Linnea - player of the match - showed high consistency in her spikes. We won the first set and pulled away in the second set right from the beginning. Strong serves and consistent game play won us the second set. While the third set started similar to the previous one, our opponents caught up and it remained tight until 20:19. With a 5 point sequence, we decided this set in our favor and made it a perfect match day with a 3:0 (25:13, 25:10, 25:19).

The perfect start in the season continued in our second match day which ended with a long trip home and a short stop at MAX.

Next game will come in four weeks in Göteborg!

Coach Thomas