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!!!