Alborg gets us again!

On Thursday, December 18th we played in the Pokal Cup semi final. As I've said there are 3 things we are trying to win, the league, the playoffs and the cup. The league and playoffs are pretty standard but the cup is a tournament that is played over the course of 4 months, so that the pre-quarters were in September, the quarters in October, semis in December and the finals will be the end of January. It is single elimination.
So our semi final match was in Alborg. The team we had beat two weeks prior at home in 5 sets. We took a fan bus with us and headed out towards Alborg which is usually about a 2 and a half hour drive. However, we did not count on two traffic jams to slow us up! Our match was scheduled for 730 and we arrived at the gym at 710. They pushed back the match to 745! gee thanks! Anyways we had a quick warm up and before the beginning of the game both teams left the gym and lined up in a tunnel. We had little kids lined up with us (like in soccer games) and they had a smoke machine when we ran out of the tunnel to flashing lights and an announcer. It was pretty cool, with so many fans there as well!
And that's about where the fun ended!!!
It was definitely not our day to play well. The first set was a pretty tight battle going back and forth, We were up 23-22 and then 3 hitting errors gave them the set 25-23. After that we lost a lot of momentum and lost the next two sets 25-19 and 25-16. Something was just missing from our offence. Mind you, they are a very big team that blocks well, but we seemed to be a little bit out of rhythm. So we have been eliminated from the Pokal Cup championship which is kinda disappointing as I believe it's on national TV.
Having to end the first half of the season on that note is kind of disappointing however especially over the past month we have improved greatly as a team. We knocked off the first and second place team in league and seem to be playing more in rhythm. Coming from playing with the same guys for 4 or 5 years you forget how long it has taken to grow comfortable until you're put in a situation where you need to get comfortable playing very quickly. I have only been playing with these players for 3 months now and we are definitely starting to play better. Hopefully in the second half of the season we can see the same kind of improvement. We still have two more goals to win in Denmark (league and playoffs) and one in Sweden (Nordic Championship) so we have lots of opportunities to play well.

Top 4 contends for the finale spaces in the cup

From Volleynet.dk
translated by gramtrans

The semifinals in a the men's national cup will be played on Thursday and on Saturday and involve the country's four clearly best team just now. Aalborg HIK and Middelfart will meet each other on Thursday, and on Saturday Gentofte and Marienlyst will fight about the other place in the finale on January 25th. It's the same four teams, who collided at last season's DM-semifinals, even in the same showdowns, thus there also are things and cases, which are to be avenged. Since then the four have established themselves solidly on the top 4 in this season's league for picked teams. Aalborg HIK and Middelfart met each other only two weeks ago in an exciting five-compositor, who will well promise for still a dramatic fight on Thursday. Middelfart won the showdown, but it was at own track and in a fight, where Aalborg HIK didn't hit the day. Thus the north Jutlanders will be intent on avenging the effort and going at their first cup final since 2003. Finales there have been lots of for Marienlyst in recent years, and the Odense-aners are defending masters of a both cup and league. But in defiance of this and the immediate first place in Elitedivisionen goes Marienlyst only in to the semifinal towards Gentofte with a narrow favourite dignity. That is due to not least Gentofte's home arena advantage and more years' tradition for dense and unpredictable fights between specifically these two teams who have delivered some memorable dramas. As late as last Saturday Gentofte and Marienlyst met, and it stayed in Odense to a rather safe victory for the home team, thus there is no doubt that Gentofte has to find some tactical tricks in order to get acrid on Marienlyst. But that also uses to be one of the specialties with coach Peter Borglund's crew. The cup final will be played on Sunday January 25th in connection with Pokalfestival in Odense. The men's cup semifinals Aalborg HIK - Middelfart VK Thursday December 18th 19:00.30 in Aalborg Stadionhal Gentofte Volley-Marienlyst Saturday December 20th 15:00.30 in Kildeskovshallen

A little bit of my volleyball history

Well we've had this week off to prepare for our big semi final Pokal cup match on thursday against Alborg so I thought i'd write about something else. Everytime I speak in public about volleyball, one of the questions i get is when did you start playing volleyball:
I first remember learning to play volleyball when I was only 7 years old. At Linklater Public School, Mr. White, my gym teacher, taught me how to properly hold my hands when passing the ball. He told me to make a fist and cover it with the other one! To this day that is how I pass the ball. Thanks Mr. White! I was into a lot of different sports at a young age including bowling, basketball, soccer and cub scouts!

I didn't really play much volleyball until I was about 12 years old where for two years I played on the senior elementary school.

I went to Regiopolis-Notre Dame for highschool and really learned how to play volleyball. Before going to Regi my sister informed me that Regi wasn't really a volleyball school and maybe I might be able to help them win a game or two! In my first year, I was a setter. By my second year I had grown a little bit and got to be a power hitter. For atleast the first half of highschool, I focussed much more on basketball then volleyball. Usually heading to the YMCA to shoot more after practice. Basketball taught me the hardwork, dedication and stamina that has gotten me through a lot of volleyball matches.
All throughout highschool we had a very strong volleyball team and even won the provincial championship. My coach for all of highschool was Pat Farrell. He started a club for all of us to play on so that we could get extra practice and even drove us about two hours so that we could try out for a regional team in Ottawa. I sincerely do not think I would be where I am today without the dedication of Pat! So many players from my highschool have gone on to keep playing and it really is a volleyball factory now. He is one of the reasons I want to be a coach!

I was recruited to a few different universities and chose McMaster based on my campus visit and the brand new volleyball program it was starting. The year before I got there the team had a dismal 2-16 record but got a new coach. I still remember a conversation with Steve Murray, a former teammate, while i was still in highshool who was thinking about going to mac as well. And I asked him "Do you want to start something here? Let's do it"

We weren't the only ones that were thinking about making a difference. 8 recruits decided to come to McMaster that year. Although we didn't make an immediate impact on paper, after 5 years of hard work we went 20-0 in the regular season and won the OUA championship.

I'm a big beleiver that you can only be as successful as the people you surround yourself with. I've been very blessed to be surrounded by such great people who have pushed me to get to where I am today. My family, friends, teammates and coaches all have gotten me to where I am. I just keep playing the sport I love!

Article from Team Website

BIG WIN OVER AALBORG!!

from middelfart-vk.dk
translated by gramtrans

"The Blue" won via Ålborg at home

In front of about 150 spectators, Herre Eliteholdet won on Thursday evening with 3-2 via Ålborg.

Lady 1. the team had taken care of drums etc. of "The Blue" so that it were added up to a good evening for Middelfart.

The fight was sometimes well played, but with big swings be in the pipeline, and marked on both pages by personal mistakes.

But at 5. sets it was this time Middelfart who had the will to win, and after 3 defeats in the other 5 setters the team had played, losing was not an option.

The set figures turned 25-21,23-25,26-24,21-25 and 15-10.

Especially Parrish Offer was the well-games and celebrated many of his winner smashes with a small dance, to puplikum's great pleasure.

George Filho also showed class, and was Middelfart's best in large parts of the fight.

Team Pic

back row l-r

Jacob Peterson, Søren Brunke, Matt LaBourdais, Peter Thaysen, Brian Degn, Ulrik Degn, Suichi Mizuno

front row l-r

Parrish Offer, Scott Townsend, Brage Roalkvam, Georgs Filho, Bo Amelung