KFUM Göteborg vs Lunds VK Herrar B
3 – 1
On Saturday October 20th, we set off to play our second away game and fourth game overall this season. It was also the longest journey so far, we were headed up north to Göteborg to meet one of the two local teams we’ll be facing this season, KFUM Göteborg. The opponent had also been victorious in all their matches so far and only ranked above us because of more favorable scores. We were about to play a very tight game!
Upon lining up on the court, it seemed like our opponent had high confidence to defeat us. This can of course go either way and we were not to be underestimated. Since the first rallies, however, our game was good but lacked our usual decisiveness. Maybe we were too respectful of the strength of our opponent and were giving them too much space in the game? Whatever the cause, due to Göteborg’s players’ tricky floating serves and powerful diagonal spikes, they managed to gain a lead and even though we responded with an effective offensive towards the first set and diminished the home team’s lead, we lost the first set to Göteborg.
Our small comeback towards the end of the first set lifted our spirits and we were hopeful to turn the second set over. After all, recovering quickly from one lost battle to win the whole game is a characteristic common to all the good teams in volleyball. After a promising start, however, the home team continued to give our receiving players a hard time with their serves and no matter how well our setters managed to fix the passes, Göteborg’s blockers were too often ready to put pressure on our hitters. Throughout the whole game, our own blockers were on the other hand maybe too easy on the opponent’s attackers. The second set thus ended in Göteborg’s favor.
By this time the opponent, supported well by the numerous spectators who came to watch the game between the two leading teams, was surely thinking the rest of the game would be an easy sailing. The qualities of Lunds VK Herrar proved them wrong, though. The whole team, together with a fresh backup Erik, who normally plays setter but was sent in this time as a left-wing hitter, responded with a amazing digs in the important moments and crushing spikes. This poured new confidence in our veins and we kept a convincing lead up to the victorious end of the third set.
We were ready to pull a five-setter at this point. As mentioned before, a good volleyball team shows resilience even under pressure and KFUM Göteborg is a good team. They managed to keep their strongest asset, difficult serves and we weren’t able to respond in suit. The home team therefore won the game 3:1. We were not leaving Göteborg sad, though! It was a very good game, worthy opponent and in individual moments of it, each one of our players showed their skills on the court. Our first defeat was a valuable lesson.
The MVP of the game went to Erik, who as mentioned previously scored some amazing moments as a left-wing hitter and helped lift the team spirit in challenging moments.
// Written by Jan, Herrar B