Match day in Bjärke bringing home 4 points

Happy faces after a long fight in the last match

Last Sunday 10/12, the Gothia Men's C team traveled to Sollebrunn for a match day at the leading team of the Div3 Västra. First we faced Trollhättan B and in the final match Bjärke. Due to sickness and injuries our squad needed support again in form of Pontus helping out. We came with Abe, Ali, Gencalp, Manos, Pontus, Shirish, Yahgoub and Dennis.

This first match, we started strong putting pressure with serves and having a solid defense. Our attacks were efficient and mistakes minimal winning 25:20 in set 1. What followed was roller coaster ride going down hard in set 2 falling behind more than 10 points after our opponents picked up the pace and reduced their errors. After losing set 2, we suddenly peeked with a massive serve/ace sequence by player of the match Pontus giving our opponents only 9 points before ending the set. Set 4 stabilized and we finished the match with a win 3:1.

The second match was what we were looking forward to and unfortunately we had little substitution options to give tired players some rest. Jumping right into the match, we played bold and had great attacks but more so an amazing defense. Falling behind quite a lot, we did not give up and fought back. Mentally strong, we defended a set ball and turned the set around winning 26:24. Second set, we fell behind early again but this time came back strong. Towards the end, our serve-receives got more pressure by hard serves losing confidence. We fought back in set 3 which we managed to win in a very competitive battle for every point. Arriving in set 4, the tiredness got to us and keeping focus in the attacks started to decrease. We fell behind far and could not make up for it. So, the final 5th set had to decide it. It looked well at the start but at the end we were not able to surprise our opponents with attacks. However, the team put great effort in reflected also in a trio player of the match - our setter Abe, opposite Ali and spiker Yahgoub. We took a point from them home with us.

Coach Thomas