Falkenberg and the Grand Prix

Well, today was the day - the true test of our strength as a team against the Swedish POWERHOUSE that is Folkenberg Volleyboll Klubb. It all started, of course, at 7:30 this morning, on the road for a 5 hour drive. After not finding much sleep last night, it wasn't TOO bad, being able to pass out in the back seat, although I'd wake up to the occasional screaming from Erik or a shooting pain in my lower back. It was a GREAT roadtrip.

ON TO THE VOLLEYBALL!!

The Falkenberg gym is awesome. It's small, sort of dome-shaped, with great lights, good wood, and a pretty awesome crowd. It felt like highschool. Falkenberg has an American, Patrick Aparicio, who used to play for VVK. The boys here don't speak to highly of him, a real jerk apparently, and the little I talked with him after match confirmed the claims on his persona.

Let me tell you, as we prepared in the locker room prior to the match, we were FIRED UP!! This is what we play for: to see how we can match up against the top team in the leagu - to stun everyone - to have that moment where we can say "damn, we did it RIGHT that game." Fired UP!!!

Well, there's a reason they're the best team in the league. The pass almost perfectly, the laser serves, and they block like all hell. We came out thundering, though. In what was perhaps the longest first set of my life, I witnessed and partook in some of the greatest volleyball I've ever seen - especially in Sweden. I had a blast!!

I looked up and it was 5 - 5 and I couldn't believe it. I could barely catch my breath. We were in a BATTLE and I was loving every minute of it. I mashed my first set down the line only to be lipped beautifully by their setter - the ball would have been shanked by ANY other team or player. We dug one right back and Tarik put the ball away. That's how it went for us in the first set. We dug balls, we blocked balls, we covered our hitters, we passed really well. We played exciting, focused volleyball. Still, I looked up and it was only 8 - 8. I almost shit myself! Emotions were flying high. In my first match-up with the "other American," I went up to block, dropped HUGE into the low, cross-court and **BA-BOOM** the ball bounced on their side. On literally the next set, I went up to block him again, only this time made a move to his line and ***BA-BOOM** - - - THUNDERCLAMP!!! It was awesome! Had it been a home match, the crowd would have gone wild. Instead, our meager chearing section of 5, and our bench of 4 went NUTS! Still, I looked up and it was 15 - 15. Then 18 - 18. It was an AWESOME display volleyball. In the end, we rode our momentum and STOLE the first set 25-22. It was so much fun.

Set two went on very similarly to the first. We played great, FOCUSED volleyball that kept the strings of sideouts coming, back to back to back. And my passing finally showed up!! Like I said, these guys could bring the heat and place the ball wherever they wanted on their serve, and with the exception of a few tough balls for Linus, we passed great. It felt so good to DIME (think perfect 10) one ball after the other. I passed nails and it was good to be back! Falkenberg is well coached, and they did their scouting, so they spread two blockers to me all night, which was EXTREMELY frustrating - then I'd find a way to get it through the block and I'd get dug! I was bringing the hammer, but I was hitting a knot in the wood. Early on this was okay though, as Dave jacked balls back to Tarik and he'd bury them time and time again. This kept us in the game time and time again. The second set dragged in like the first, and came down to the bitter end, working into overtime. We sided-out a few times when they had game point, before I passed a perfect ball and Dave tried to dump only to be rejected - BIG! We lost the second set 28-26.

After the second set there is always a 10 minute break which I think I've noted before that I HATE!! In any case, despite our best efforts to stay up, the ball did not go our way. Before long a few of the guys, well, one really (but an important one) began to get timid. They'd have 2 guys waiting at the pin for me so Dave would throw it back and our guy would TIP with no block up, afraid to hit it out, or worse, get dug. Time and time again he tipped or got dug with NO BLOCK UP!! The simply chose to not block, and it worked. A serious lack of confidence lost us set 3, 25 - 17. The one highlight for me was, down something like 22 - 13, I went back to the service line and RIPPED an ace, followed up by ANOTHER. Yeah, it was cool! :)

We found our legs again in the fourth and battled to stay in the match the whole time. We stayed ahead a point for most of the match early on, but we began to struggle a bit on the block, and ball after ball that they had good swing on, went to the floor. We were able to sideout well with good passing, but it all came down to the final points. You could tell as we tried to pull out all the stops that there was just no mojo left in the tank -- LOW-lighted by an ugly service error on my part (terrible toss about 8 feet too far into the court, just trying to almost TIP it over). Down to the last play we fought, a decent pass, a set to Tarik, well covered by the other 5 of us on the court, but the block was just too big. We lost the fourth 25-23.

It was a hell of match, and frankly, I couldn't have asked for more from our team. We were in no way expected to win, but we came out and played solid volleyball. We showed a lot of heart. If we can learn to sustain that energy, we'll be in great shape!

Of course, a five-hour van ride home would not be very much fun after a loss, but there was one bright-side to the evening. After our loss we all huddled around cellphones where we had the scores of another match between Tierp and Team Valla being sent to us. In order for us to make the Grand Prix we needed Tierp to win, didn't matter how, just win! The match went to 5! And it was a doozy! (doozey? doosey?) We watched as the text came through: 1-1, 2-1 on up to 8-8 and 10-10. With each point we all cheered or booed. It was HILARIOUS watching all these guys pulling out their hair and YELLING with each point. Tierp took the final set 15-13! It was unbelievable. SO, we left Falkenberg a little lighter than we would have had we NOT made the Grand Prix. And while we probably don't deserve to be there, it's great for the club, great for our confidence, and great for me and Dave because we both get a bonus!!

and yeah, we play Falkenberg first round of the Grand Prix... the sage to be continued!!!

Reaching new lows...

RELAX!! No, I'm not speaking morally! It's getting COLD!!! There is frost covering everything. I had to wear my super big jacket today, whereas normally I can get by with something a bit lighter to go to and from the gym. Right now it's -8 degrees Celsius, about 18 degrees Fahrenheit. BRRRR!!! We've still got a ways to go to reach the winter lows, but everyone here is complaining it's cold. I love it!! Hopefully we'll get some SNOW soon! It's been about 2 weeks since a good snowfall. We've had a couple light dustings here and there, but nothing serious. Would be nice to have a white Christmas, WHICH, by the way, I watched the other night on TV. I caught a lot more of the subtleties this time 'round.

We have a match in Folkenburg (sp?) this Saturday. We're hanging on to a Grand Prix birth - a win Saturday would obviously seal it, but there are still circumstances in which we wouldn't make it. It would be nice to get a couple extra bucks! :) Along with the glory of playing in it of course! Unfortunately, the match Saturday is AWAY, and I mean WAY AWAY. It's about a 5 hour drive (SWEET!). Good quality time with the guys in the van! YEAH!

Anyway, I'm here, keeping busy with various little projects, but somehow, even here, time seems to tick by. Never enough hours in a day!

As Promised...

As promised, here are the results of last night's match vs. Tierp. It was basically a must-win match for us in order to go to the Grand Prix (a tournament right after New Years for the top four teams). Apparently the Grand Prix is a VERY big deal, the biggest thing in volleyball in Sweden - more important than the actual championship. With our backs to the wall, we came out ready to play good, focused volleyball - and Vingaker prevailed!

We took the match in 3 straight sets 25-23, 25-17, 25-19 in just 61 minutes. We played great, well-rounded volleyball, with contributions from everyone. I lead the team with 12 points on 10 kills and 2 blocks. Tobi and Dave followed up with 7 points each. Tierp has a 7 foot middle from Australia of the Nick Scheftic mold- young and awkward, but he was pretty good, so that was fun. They also have a Brazilian who bangs and even an American! A nice southern boy from Virginia who spent some time playing at Pepperdine before heading back east to get some more playing time.

We went out in Orebro last night to celebrate. We had a blast! The Orebro women's team won their match yesterday as well, so a group of them all came over to Dave's for a little party before we all went down the the bar. Dave, Bullen, Tobi, Thomas, Tarik and I were there from our team, along with a few other friends, and about 6 or 7 of the girls, including a new American from California. She's been here about a week, so we chatted a bit. I tried to make her a bit more comfortable around the Swedes.

All in all, things are great. We play our last match of the first half on Saturday. Crazy how the time is flying.

Orkelljunga Orkelljunga Orkelljunga

Try saying that 5 times fast! I can't properly pronounce it once!

This past weekend, while family members paid there respects to Gramma and I was inducted into the Hall of Uncles with the arrival of Kacie Lynn (!) we had a roadtrip down to, you guess it, Orkelljunga. It's about a 5 hour journey, crammed in the back of a 9 passenger van - great bonding time if you can stay awake!

We were up early, about 7 to grab a small bite to eat and jump in the vans. The sun doesn't rise til at least 8:30 so it felt even earlier than it was - not to mention I haven't been up much before 11 since I've been here.

As you can imagine, we all had on our morning faces. Here are Tarik, Dave, Vildan (Tarik's brother and our biggest fan) and Linus. Linus picked us up from the hotel and we all drove over to the school where we met the vans and the rest of the team. Oh, and Tarik is incapable of taking a picture with eyes open!


We found Erik first, walking up to the school, pillow in hand, ready for some more sleep. He's so beautiful when he smiles! "Paul, I'm so beautiful, even in the morning! What girl wouldn't want to wake up next to me?" The rest of the guys trickled in, but we were all there on time so as not to upset Tobey. He's a bit of a control maniac and the last thing you want from him is the death stare:


I'm just kidding, he's actually quite the friendly guy. But seriously, don't get on his bad-side. :)





We made it the gym no problem. There's a myth that no team can serve well in the Orkelljunga gym because of its low ceilings and bad lighting, but honestly, it's almost exactly like our gym.


Dave said to me, "Take this picture so you can show everyone at home the gym you played in," (like you can see anything), but his point was "They can see how bad it is to play in dim lights with red brick walls. It's hard to pass a ball coming from a server standing in front of a brick wall. The ball blends in and makes it almost impossible. I had the same problem in Stanford, those lousy trees.


I talked with Brian Beckwith before the match. He was the setter at Hawaii when I played at UCLA. He's growing a dirty mustache to match my frothy beard. He said he really likes Sweden, the team is pretty good and the guys are nice, but his number one complaint was that the town didn't have a bar. I feel for him. Word on the street though is that after our match his team fired two of its Polish professionals to make way for some new American player. Guess who? Kris Kraushaar! He's coming up from his latest stint in Barcelona to give the team a try. They'll be eager to sign him, we'll just have to see if SoCal Kris can handle the cold weather. Ha! He actually got into town there today, a bummer, just 2 days after our match!

Well, the match went as we had hoped! We played perfect, flawless volleyball in the first set and won BIG! No one shined, it wasn't flashy, just controlled, disciplined volleyball. It was awesome. We made a few more errors in the second set, but held on to win a close set of about 25-23. After every second set in a match we have a 10 minute break and this has thus far proved to be out downfall. We came back flat and lost the 3rd set like 26-24. Going an unnecessary 4th set is a real pain in my butt, shoulder, and legs. We managed to hang in there and win the 4th in another close set that went to extra points as well. Tarik was named player of the match, GREAT for his confidence which has been seriously lacking lately.

Afterward, we showered. gathered our things, and headed back out to the vans. It was dark again. Yay! the boys thought I was really cute with all the pictures I was taking, so I'll share a few of them here at the end. Can you imagine the ride home if we had lost? It's more fun to win than to lose!
I understand that I have a few more readers than I may have known! Just so everyone knows, I DON'T PROOFREAD! Ha! So if there is poor grammar or any misspellings or typos I apologize! But please feel free to post comments or questions so that I can share anything that may be missing. It would be nice to hear from people, and to know who's reading. You can also email me at vbsetr21@juno.com. Hope everyone is doing well!

The Cruise

I'm finally getting around to updating my blog with all the latest news from Sweden! We have to time-travel back a week to pick up where we last left off, so hold on to your butts, the flux-capaciter is fluxing and we're approaching 88mph. Anyone?

After working our way through Stockholm, fighting the rain and cold just to catch a couple of sights, we hopped back in the car and headed over the cruise ship for our one-night adventure out to Aland and back. Maddis, who is on the board of directors for our club for no other reason than she just loves volleyball, is sort of our "team mom" as well and takes care of all international players. Apparently past foreign players have "complained" that they never got to go on a boat while they were in Sweden, so she took it to heart and arranged a cruise for Dave and me. She, her commonlaw Joran, Dave and I set sail Sunday evening about 6.

As I mentioned, it was only a one-night cruise leaving Stockholm and floating out to Aland, the half-way island between Sweden and Finland. It's officially a part of Finland so yes, I have made it to a surrounding country for a visit! I was shocked, however, at the size of the ship, it being such a short trip. A full-size cruise liner, I couldn't get it all in one picture. This is the bow, and I probably only capture about 1/10 of the total size. Pretty crazy.

We had a room on one of the top levels, not down in the slums with the work crew. Ha! Naturaly though, the rooms were tiny for two large volleyball players. Somehow we both managed to fit on our beds, but were so close together I might as well have been the little spoon. There was a duty-free store onboard so we grabbed a couple of beers and snacks before dinner.

Dinner was interesting. The live entertainer, singing American classics from Sinatra to Clarkson, was giving me the eye all night. We all had a good laugh! Ya, hilarious! But the food was even more interesting. I started with a 3 Salmon appetizer. The first was sushimi, the second lightly seared, the third pickled - all raw. MMMM. I enjoyed each down to the last sliver. I followed it up with some reindeer. I'm not sure, but I could have sworn it wasn't cooked. It was really, really tender, and very, very lean. I enjoyed it, but it lacked seasoning, so I was happy when the last bite came around. The mashed 'taters it came with were delicious!

Just when I thought I was getting my sea-legs we went for a drink in the club at the back of the ship. I had my first Irish coffee that was WAY too strong. They say the back of the boat is usually the calmer place when experience some ocean turbulence, but we were bouncing all over the place. I was worried I was going to be sick, especially as we watched the little Christmas dance show they put on. I'm not quite sure how to explain the lack of talent that comes out of Sweden. The show couldn't even match that of "The Batman Stunt Show" at Magic Mountain, or "Phantom of the Opera" at Superior St. School. Amongst the 20 dancers maybe one had rhythm and I won't even comment on the singers. Sheesh.

After a drink Maddis and Joran retired for the night, leaving Dave and I to conquer the small crowd of senior citizens. Apparently these cruises are great for young people on the weekends, but given that it was a Monday night, we had some trouble finding people our own age. Luckily, Dave randomly knew one of the waitresses who had once been a tour guide in Portugal where Dave played a few years back. She introduced us to some of the rest of the the staff including some of the awful singers and dancers. Funny how it always comes full-circle. We stayed out at the "disco" with the other 20 people, most of which were staff, until about 3am, beforing calling it quits for the night. It was a most classic evening, full of sloppy drunks and late-night sandwiches. What are you going to do?

We had breakfast the next morning as we rounded Aland, then did a little exploring about the ship and before we knew it we were back in Stockholm. We had to make it back in time for practice. Yay!

The Due Date - Stockholm

Well, it was December 3rd, Melinda's due-date, and everyone was very excited to hear if I was an new uncle! Unfortunately, I had to leave my computer and any news of my first niece/nephew behind because I was off on an adventure! Maddis and Joran (sp? "your-on") were taking Dave and me to do some sightseeing in Stockholm then on a one night cruise to Aland, an island between Sweden and Finland.

We'll begin with our visit to Stockhom. It was a cold, wet, rainy day that would have been perfect spent curled up by a fire with a good book or snuggled in bed with a movie. Instead, we braved the elements withouth umbrellas so get a real glimpse of Stockholm. It is the capital and largest city in Sweden, built on islands with a lot of history.

The buildings were old, but beaultiful. Our plan was to walk through the old part of Stockholm first, through the castle and other governmental buildings. We didn't get far before I was struck by the most peculiar sight ever. It being December third, and the thought that Melinda could be bringing new life into the world as I walked the cobbled streets, what would I spot graffitied on the side of a power box? None other than the little guy himself:

It was the most incredible and timely sight of my life. I stopped to take a picture, I just HAD to, and the rest of the gang kept walking. When I ran to catch up I had to explain the story. Dave thought it was interesting, but something was lost in translation for Maddis and Joran. They smiled and nodded. I thought, "I hope Caper is born today so one day I can tell him the story of how I was in Stockholm and saw him plastered on the side of building as a sign of his arrival."

We continued on to the old sights, and I'll share a few of those the pictures here. First, the old castle where apparently royalty still live. The guards outside don't quite have the same discipline as those at Buckingham, but they're loaded and fixed with bayonettes. I didn't want to get too close.

This is the parliament building. It sits right along the edge of the water with a spectacular view of a few other islands. We didn't quite get there in time to go in, but we were able to walk around and under the arches you see in the center of the picture. It is just beautiful architecture and the rain gave it all a sense of majesty.

We walked through Old Stockholm and around to some of the more modern parts. We ventured into a fish market where I'd swear they were pulling these things right out of the water and placing them in the ice for sale. The meat smelled like it had been cut from the cow, deer, or pig just 10 minutes prior. It's incredible how lean all the meat is. I don't know what they're doing to raise the animals, but the meat is always so tender, and pre-cooked doesn't appear to have any fat on it. Yummy.

I'll drop a few more random pics of Stockholm just so you have an idea of what I saw. There were statues everywhere, a few different sort of farmer's markets, an outdoor skating rink, everything beginning to get decorated for Christmas.

Because it was such a cold and wet day we decided to stop into Stockholm's oldest coffee shop to warm up a bit. Yes it's the oldest, established in something like 1783, and so naturally it's also the most expensive, about 6 bucks for your standard cup of jo.

Here are Maddis, Dave, and Joran in the shop, decorated to celebrate the past Kings and Queens of Sweden. I felt slightly out of place dripping wet in my HUGE Adidas Jacket, but there were lots of out tourists as well.

As I've mentioned before, I haven't seen much wildlife since I've been in Sweden. I've spotted the occasional deer or "dun" as they jokingly call them, but not nearly as many as you'd think given the environment. It wasn't until the streets of Stockholm on our way to the ship to embark on our cruise that I spotted what I've been waiting to see since the moment I arrived! Holy Bullwinkle!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Not really feeling the creative buzz this morning so this update may be lacking charisma. Frankly, it's going to be about as dull as Sunday's game against Lugi. It was tough starting the engine Sunday afternoon for an unnatural 3:00 start time. I had lifted heavy Friday and my legs were a bit tight. There was a Christmas parade in town so we had a very small crowd of about 50, so finding an emotional lift was difficult as well. To top it off with a rotten cherry, we were playing a Lugi, a team we should always beat, but on any given day...

I had my elementary school fans in the front row of the crowd cheering me on, and a couple oohs and aahs on my first 3 kills which came from the right side. I played opposite this match in place of Tarik, so that we could get another passer on the court in my usual position. The game felt easy and natural to me until I went back for my first serve and caught my toss with my fingertips, fluffing the ball into the bottom of the net. From then on it was an interesting ride. I managed to dig more balls this match than any other thus far (2 I think, yippee!) but the rest of my game struggled. We lost the first set 22-25, mainly because we couldn't serve a ball in the court and they were RIPPING jump serves at us.

We gathered ourselves and played tremendous defense in the second set, though I continued to struggle. Tarik was subbed in for me to hit in the backrow because I had hit 2 or 3 "D" sets just long. It was good to get me out of there, but Tarik struggled just as much as I did. He missed into the net with no block up! A rough day for the right-sides. In any case, this was about when Erik came alive and started to thunder some balls hitting, and CLAMP their hitters time and time again. We took set 2 by a score of 25-22.

Set three we were back on track and jumped out to a huge lead behind stellar blocking. We maintained about a 1o point lead the entire set, even gave a up a couple in the end, and still won 25-12. It was a joke. We knew where every set was going and blocked or dug every ball. It was great to see some results after all the defensive work we put in at practice that week.

The fourth set I was subbed out again as I continued to suck it up, but like I said, Tarik wasn't of much use either. The distribution of sets was great and the other guys really plugged along to carry us to victory. Erik went on a rampage finishing 7 blocks, 7 kills, and an ace. He lead the team, but Linus and Vedad (our two outsides) contributed nicely with 13 and 11 points, respectively. I finished the game with a kill off the block which gave me a total of just 9 points (every time I was subbed I would go back in by the end of the game).

In the end Tarik and I joked about how poorly we had played, but even amidst all the subbing and bench time, I managed to have a good time. I was all smiles and jokes on the bench and so long as we're winning that will be okay. If I can get by saving myself every few matches and sharing sets with the other guys I'll be a happy camper. They all think I WANT to be set so much!

We travel on Saturday down to Orkelljunga where Brian Beckwith plays. It's about a 6 or 7 hour drive I think, so that'll be REALLY fun. Will be good to talk with Brian a bit - we've exchanged a couple of emails since the Swedish Cup.

If we can continue to win we'll be in a good spot to make the Grand Prix, the tournament after New Years. I think if we win 2 of our next 3 we're in, unless something crazy happens in the other matches. If we win all 3 we're in for sure. Cross your fingers or "hold your thumb" as they say in Canada - if we make it I get a bonus!

That's the latest on the volleyball front! Stay tuned!