Game vs Aalborg

We had our third game of the season against Aalborg. It is the furthest we travel for a league game and after about a 3 hour drive we arrived in Aalborg. Our game was held in the same athletic complex that Aalborg played Manchester United about 2 weeks ago in football. The facilties were impecable. This team knocked out Middelfart last year in the semis in game 3 of the best of 3 series in the 5th set. They went on to lose to Marienlyst in the finals. We had seen them play at our tourniment but hadn't played them yet. Most of us were excited to play a new team as it had felt like we had been playing the same teams.

Well, they definetly were a new team. They picked up 3 new players since our tourni, 3 of them play on the Danish national team, and played incredible. In short, we could not pass their serves. They continually put passing pressure on us that we could not handle. One serve in particular was possibly the hardest server had the hardest serve i've ever had to pass. Instead of it simply being a fast spining serve, his serve would be that speed however it would not be spinning, it would be floating at you and changing directions in the air. I believe he alone had 6 aces on us in 3 sets!

Simply put, we were not prepared for this game. We lost 3-0 and the sets were not even close. Every time we started to get some rythim our passing would break down or we would make a hitting error. I do beleive they had an exceptional serving game (the week prior they lost to Gentofte and missed over 20 serves) however, we must be better than we were on saturday. Training will be paramount. We have a bye weekend and I have been spending much of my time and energy in the gym, getting stronger and faster.

First Coaching Tourni

taken from Middelfart-vk.dk

Resultater fra DU efter søndagens kampe 5.okt.

Her var hvad holdets træner, Parrish Offer skrev:

The D15 and D17 girls teams traveled to Veijl to play in FSYVBK Grand Prix. Both teams have been working hard to implement a new offensive system and this was the first chance to try it in a game situation. A team dropped out of the the D15 team's pool so their two round robin games were against the same team.

Unfortunately, they lost both 2-0, but all were fiercely competitive. The DU15 team won their third and final game and by the end of the day seemed to be very confident for their future games. Line Amussen showed true leadership and an ability to run a great offence.

The D17 team played two round robin games and Unfortunately they lost both as they were continuing to learn the new system. They're third and final game was a 2-0 victory, captivated by a 25-23 victory in the second set which included two miraculous digs on game point. Henriette was unstoppable both in her attack and consistent serve.

The games were a very good test to see where we stand as a team, what we are good at and what we need to work on.

DU15 endte som nr. 5 og DU17 som nr. 4.

Holdet spiller næste gang søndag den 26. oktober.

Game #2

We played Skobakken on Saturday October 4th. This is the team that we had a training match with and went 5 with in our tourni. Well this time around it was a little different. They proved to be not quite as difficult this time around as we were able to properly gameplan for a single game. We won the first set 25-15. Careful to not let the momentum slip away as we did the week prior against Marienlyst, we kept the foot on the gas. We won the next two sets 25-16, 25-17. Good to get under our belts.
STATS:
7 Kills, 2 errors, 12 Times Attacking, 3 aces

First League Match & Birthday Night in Odense

Our first league match was against Marienyst. We've played them a few times, but this was the first time that really mattered. They are in Odense pronounced oonza. It's the gym with the concrete floor!

The game was live on TV so that was kinda cool having video cameras and stuff. They interviewed some of the guys after the game. Mostly guys that speak Danish on both teams.

We knew were were in for a fight as they are the defending champions. We started off playing pretty well and won the first set 25-23. It all started to unravell after that. They continued to play at a high level and we dropped our passing making it really difficult to score. They begin blocking us all over the place. We lost the next 3 sets as we could not find rythim in our passing and attacking.Stats; 6 Kills, 5 errors, 13 Times Attacking

After that we decided to stay in Odense to party for the night. The guys had strict instructions from Leah to make sure I had a good time. They did not disappoint, we met up with the guys from Marienlyst and went to a clubg. George (who does not drink) drove us home at about 6am after the club.

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

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