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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Results from Kampprogram Elitestævnet 2008.

Recap: The tourni was a good eye opener of the volleyball here in Denmark and in the Scandinavian countries.

Friday September 19th

Lycurgus (Holland) vs MVK - 3-2 loss
The first game against Lycurgus we were playing against Jasmin Cull, who went to Mohawk in Hamilton who I know a bunch of you know. They were very impressive in warmup and the first two sets. I did not have a very strong game and got pulled after the second set. In the third we regrouped and played what i think was the best volleyball we played all weekend. We won the next two but ended up bowing out in the 5th.

Saturday September 20th
Orkeljunga (Sweden) vs MVK - 3-1 win
This game was against Andrew Bonner, a guy from Ontario but was teammates with Matt on his team at UBC. We started off a little bit slow, but came back and won in 4. I did not start however i came in as a blocking sub.

Skovbakken vs MVK - 3-2 win

This team is in our league and is the young team that we played a few weeks ago in a training match. I started and had a reletively effective game. They started playing some intense defence which started frustrating our hittings and we got down 2-1. We pushed through as we knew if we lost the game we would not make the semis.
Sunday September 21st

Semis- Marienlyst vs MVK - 3-1 loss
Marienlyst is big rival for us as they are in our league and they are very good. They run alot of their offense through Sean Powell, who is from Scarborough but went to school in the states at George Mason. We came out firing and won the first set 25-9. The second set was a tight battle and we had them on the ropes 24-21, but couldn't close out and lost 30-28. We had missed our chance to strike when they were down. Missed opportunity! Good thing it's early in the season! Again, I came in as a blocking sub.

Bronze - Gentoftke vs MVK - 3-1 win

With 6 matches in 4 days and 25 sets under our belt, the legs were starting to get a little tired. But we needed to gear up for one last match. Gentoftke is another team in our league and another rival. I started the match and again played well offensively. After a 1-1 split we took control of the match and closed it out.

For the team, the tourni was a good way to see where we are. There were moments of brilliance that are encouraging of where we can be as a team in the future. The goal is just to have that brilliance shine through more often

Personally, I was a little frustrated with my passing on the weekend. It wasn't my offence that was keeping me off the court but my passing, which is a switch from what i'm used to. My focus is now to be the passer that i've always thought in my head that i was! More training is all i can do now!
Tourniment Champion: Lycurgus (Holland)

Some Scenic pics courtesy of Matt

I figured more pictures of Middelfart would be good!

Right downtown on the waterfront


Boat on the water! Seems to be true!

Our team room, well part of it!


The Main Street in Middelfart
The Church




The Harbour

Typical Houses in Denmark

Monday, September 22, 2008

Polko Cup Pre Quarters

Thursday, Sept 18th we left for Copenhagen to play in the Polko Cup PreQuarter finals. There are three things that you try to win in the Danish league: the cup, the regular season, and the playoffs. The regular season and playoffs are pretty self explanatory, but the cup is a single elimination tournament that with the pre quarters in september, the quarters in November, the semis in December and the finals in January. The team was pretty inexperienced and we beat them quite handly 3-0. I personally played quite well and Scott and I were in pretty good rythim. The really neat thing was the gym we played in. It was a very very old building that they transformed into a gym and completely modernized it. (i'll put up pics soon). The two teams that we were supposed to meet in the quarters withdrew from the tournament so we have a bye into the semis.
Stats:
11Kills, 1 Error, 17 Times attacking

Friday, September 19, 2008

Team Pic after win in Copenhagen

Back row (L-R): Jacob Peterson (manager), Peter [Denmark], Soren[Denmark], Bryan[Denmark], Matt [Canada], Ulrig[Denmark], Mizuno (Coach) [Japan]
Front row (L-R): Me[Canada], Scott[Canada], Brage [Norway], Bo [Denmark], George [Brazil]

details and pics to follow about game

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Germany and Training match vs Arhus

I've added the schedule for the nordic championship. It's not until the end of October however it was supposed to be in Odense (about an hour away) but for some reason its switched to Norway! Pretty happy about a trip to Norway! We play the number 1 and number 2 Norwegian teams, and if we win those two matches we go on to either Sweden or Finland.

Germany!

We had the day off on Saturday so Scott, Matt and I decided it would be a good idea to drive to Germany and pick up some beer.

In Denmark, beer is a little less expensive then in Canada but reletively the same. However, a quick hour drive to Germany and you get to these special border shops that are especially for the Danish. Here you can get 3 two-fours for 20 dollars Canadian! Aside from that there is cheap candy, pop and wine. We also got 3 boxes of 1.5 ltr wine for 20 dollars! What a great place. The funny thing about Denmark and Germany is that Coca-Cola is more expensive then beer. It's soo expensive. In Denmark, at the grocery store, 2litres of Coke is about 5 dollars.


Anyways, we got the team car (we have a car just for the players to use) around 2 and drove along the highway for about an hour til we crossed the border. Everyone drives really fast! You gotta keep it around 140km/hr to stay with traffic, I really like it! We got a little lost and found a store by driving around a little bit. In total, I think we bought about 15 cases + wine+ hard liquor. Yea i'm in training for volleyball!

Arhus

On Sunday we had our final training match in Arhus. It was about an hour away and the second largest city in Denmark. The gym wasn't too bad as you can see-much better than the concrete of Marienlyst. The team was quite young, or atleast they seemed much younger than us. We won the first 3 sets pretty handly. They won the next and we won the 5th. THEN, Mizuno (our coach) asked if we could play a 6th! Thats alot of volleyball! I think they beat us 25-17, we really weren't into it very much! Oh well, the rhythim felt pretty good and I felt like I has a pretty good game offensively. We're still getting used to each other in serve receive but offensively we seem to be connecting better.

Stats 19Kills, 3 errors, 28 times attacking, 3 aces

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Nordic Championship

Nordic Club Championships 2008/2009
Nordic Club Championships, in this modern version, was formed in 2007.
First year, 7 men´s teams and 9 women´s competed. Loimu (men) and Salon Viesti (women) from Finland won the two championships.

This year 23 teams are playing.

Go to MEN competition 2008/2009
Go to WOMEN competition 2008/2009

Information about the rules/regulations
Organiser pay for hotel, three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and local transports. Visiting team pay their own travel to competition city.

In case of 4 teams in a group, 2 matches should be played on Friday 2 matches should be played on Saturday 2 matches should be played on Sunday
The teams that travel the longest way should play the last match on Friday and the first match on Sunday to have the opportunity to travel on Friday and Sunday.

In case of 3 teams in a group, 1 match should be played on Friday 1 match should be played on Saturday 1 match should be played on Sunday
The teams that travel the longest way should play on Saturday and Sunday if no other information is exchanged.
MeetingsPreliminary inquiry and technical meeting will be held on the same day as the first matches.

Organisers
Teams who wish to organise the Final have to apply latest 1 week after the First Round.

Aims and purposes
- To promote the development of volleyball in Nordic countries- To promote the cooperation between the Volleyball Federations of NEVZA and other countries and clubs.
- To organize professional top volleyball tournament in Nordic Europe.
- To prepare club teams for participating in European Cup Competitions.


Committee:In the committe there are 4 members from SWE, FIN, DEN and NOR.SWE: Torbjörn Johansson, torbjorn.johansson@volleyboll.se FIN: Jouni Oksanen, oksanenjouni@hotmail.com DEN: Sven Brix, svb@volleyball.dk NOR: Geir Opseth, Geir@fvbk.no
Publicerad: 2008-09-10
Kontaktperson: Torbjörn Johansson
Skriv ut


Men 2008-2009
The group stage will be played on 31st of October - 2nd of November.
Group 1
Förde* organiser NOR
Middelfart, DEN
Nyborg, NOR

Group 2
Marienlyst* organiser DEN
Vingåker, SWE
Throttur, ICE
Aalborg, DEN

Group 3
Gentofte* organiser DEN
Kristiansund
Stjarnan
Falkenberg

Winner of groups together with the best runner-up advance to the final.
The final will be played 30th of January - 1st of February.The organiser will be selected one week after completing the group stage.
Publicerad: 2008-09-10
Kontaktperson: Torbjörn Johansson
Skriv ut

Monday, September 8, 2008

Some new pics


The New Bridge (6 lanes)

Beach Court on the waterfront (Don't hit a ball too long or it's in the water!)
Walking Street in Middelfart
The Only Disco in town!

Our playing gym- Hal A


Hal B- a training hall


Hal C- Another training gym (bouncy floor!)


Workout Gym


Cardio Area