Asians 07

Well Asian Championships was the unbelivable tournament I have ever played in in my life. It's was mentally and physically exhausting and it was the pinnacle of the 2007 National team season ths far.

We ventured to Jakarta, Indonesia with 1 goal in mind, to win the Asian Championships. We had a strong team and had beaten some great opposition over the course of the year. However first of all we needed to make it into the top 8 which in itself was not easy. this is because Indonesia and the top 3 seeds (the big 3) China, Korea and Japan were automatically top of their respective pools and straight through to the 8 team round robin final. So to just make top 8 we had to beat India (2nd Commonwealth Championships) Kazakhstan (2006 World Champs representative) and Kuwait.

The first match was against India and it was tough. We were down 1-0 and fought back to be 2-1 up. Unfortunatelly we were down about 20-16 in the 4th and it looked like a 5th would be on the agenda. However a good comeback got us over the line 26-24 and gave us a great chance to qualify through.
2nd match was rather uneventful, we outclassed the weaker Kuwaiti team to win easily in 3 sets.

The 3rd match was another danger match against the Kazakhs. Unfortunatelly for them both there setters had become injured within the first few days of the tournament. So with their best outside setting they were no match for us and we suprisingly cruised to an easy victory.So we had qualified for the top 8. So the next day we played the defending champions and favourites Japan. We came out absolutelly firing in the first set to win it comfortably. then Japan settled and played some good Volleyball and took the next 2 sets. We again stepped it up in the 4th set and then in the 5th played some nice aggressive Volleyball to completely blow the Japs away and take the match. It felt great to beat a top 10 team and importantly to do it at such an important time. However we needed to regroup and be ready for the match against Korea the following day.

When you playe Korea you always know they will be competitive. They play consistent error free volleyball and make some great defensive plays, to win against a team like Korea your gonna have to earn it. And oh boy did we earn it that game!

Again it was even between the 2 teams we won the 2nd and the 4th to take it to another 5 setter. However it wasn't looking good for us. We were down early and it got worse, changing ends at 8-3 we then lost another point on a bad pass. However after this point we started to get our act together. Ever so slowly we managed to pick up 1-2 points every service run and suddenly it was 12-13. A Korean hitting error and suddenly it was 13-13, we had bridged a 6 point gap in a 5th set!

We saved several match points, Dan nailed a guy in the chest that with a ball that we that may have been going out! (Not that he could get out of the way) And suddenly we had a match point at about 16-15, only for Korea to side out and then get a block on their own. So at 18-18 with Chika serving Dan managed to get a block on the Korean captain Lee, only to see the ball rebound of his head back onto our side! Luckily a scramble play got us the transition kill and we had match point. Almose like De Ja Vu the Koreans set Lee and Dan this time stuffs him straight into the floor to give us the most unbelivable victory i've ever witnessed or played in! The celebrations after this game are something I will never forget. I think we got home at 1230 that night!The very next day we were to play Iran. Who had been doing pretty well throughout the tournament coming very close to both Japan and Korea in many sets. This time we finally found ourselves up 2-1, only to lose the 4th and go into yet another 5th set match. So at 10-10 the match was in the balance as Ben Hardy stepped up to the service line.

First serve.......ACE

Second Serve.........ACE Followed by a time out from Iran

Back on court and 3rd serve..........ACE and suddenly it was 13-10

We still managed to make it interesting when we missed our first match point at 14-12, but Igor hit the final kill of the day to give us another 5 set win! And again we got back to the hotel sometime after midnight.Clearly at this point in time everyone was very tired. We had a massive lead in to this tournament and it was starting to show. It was incredible the way the team kept pressing, training every morning even though we were running on practically nothing. However at game time whether it was the adrenelane or just the desire to win every match we lifted and we never looked fatigued at all. We were also able to use a lot of players from the bench throughout the whole tournament which I believe was important for a tournament with so many games in so few days.

So back to the following matches! The next 3 matches were against the teams that were seen by many to be not that strong. We did manage to beat Taipei, Indonesia and Thailand all 3-0, but it was by no means easy. Especailly the Indonesian match where we won one set 36-34!

So it came down to the last day. Simple equation we beat China we win Asians, we lose Japan win Asians because of their greater points percentage as long as they beat Thailand. So we again came out and won the 1st set and were looking good. Again it was tough and close and we went up 2-1 only to lose the 4th. So another 5th set, only this time it was not to be. China played quite well and we made a few too many errors to lose the 5th 15-12. It was the most horrible feeling in the world to get so close to something and feel it slip through your fingers. (Post match point photo below)The whole team and squad was absolutelly devestated. It was a quiet change room for a good 45 minutes after the game. Eventually a few of us decided to watch Japan crush Thailand and seal our fate.

However that's not quite how it turnt out. At about 20-20 in the Thailand- Japan match Thailand got some points and suddenly won the first 25-21. So we figured Japan would win in 4.......until the same thing happened in the 2nd set, thailand again 25-21! Japan didn't look like the same team they had been all tournament and Thailand were recieving very well and always managed to find a kill at the appropriate time. So again at about 20-20 in the 3rd Thailand got a block, the Japan went under the net on a combo and before long it was 24-21 Thailand. In probably the most nervous moments in my volleyballing life we watchec a side out from Japan, followed by Japan getting a kill block to make it 24-23. Then Thailand set the quick only for it to be blocked.....then covered, a high ball outside set and the Thai outside tooled the blocker into the antennae! WE WERE ASIAN CHAMPIONS!!! So the celebratory hugging in the stands spilled out to the Thai side of the net where we all gave them a pat on the back after they had finished shaking hands. (they were also pretty happy at the time for beating Japan for the first time in their history) By this stage somebody had run and told the guys who were still in the change room that we were Asian Champions. I'll never forget the look on Chika's face. I think he couldn't really comprehend the fact we had won because he was so dissapointed about thinking we had lost it. To be honest I think it took a while for it to sink in for everyone.
To top it off Dan was also named MVP of the tournament, a great achievment for a guy who had a great tournament playing sorta somewhat out of position!

So all that was left to do was pound out the national anthem, get our medals and head back to Australia as champions of Asia!!!