Well.....

Well it's been a long time inbetween blogs, and I'm gonna do my best to keep you up to date.

Well our last match of the season was against the 6th rank Eltmann. I think this in many ways was a turning point in the season. We decided to drive to Eltmann the same day on a bus, and everything was going really smooth. We started the match well and soon found ourselves up 2-0 and in complete control. However Eltmann stepped it up, they had the chance to finish 6th instead of 8th if they won this game. So they were a little better in the 3rd, however we always maintained a 3-4 pt lead until the end of the set, then we threw it away.....stupidly (after having 2 match points). No problem however we would just win the 4th, again in complete control until the end of the set and we throw it away again. So yeh very annoying, and then we were again up in the 5th 9-6 i think, only to lose like 15-13. It was an annpying loss, however it didn't mean anything to us in the scheme of playoffs. So we needed to regroup for the tough quarter final against Unterhaching mid week. However I felt that this was a turning point in the season, we had been playinng very well and we really needed to finish these guys off 3-0 when we had the chance too.

We were full of confidence heading to Unterhaching, I felt that we were a better team than Unterhaching, and if we played our best they couldn't touch us. Well it certainly started that way. We were unstoppable the first 2 sets winning both to 19. Then we dropped maybe 10% and Unterhaching stepped it up 10% to take the next 2 sets. We were looking lost at this stage but still managed to take a 9-6 lead in the 5th and it looked like we were in control again. Then we had the yips and let it slip. 15-13 in the 5th again, the similarities from the previous game only 4 days earlier really showed. It was very dissapointing.

So the 2nd match was in Wuppertal, not a lot to say really. Unterhaching won the first, but then we controlled the rest of the match to take it comfortably 3-1. Giving us a 11-1 home record for the season which was the best in the league.

The 3rd match was a disaster, I'm not sure why but our team didn't come to play. We served over 20 service errors in 3 sets and got blovked so many times it was hard to comprehend. I atually got to play as a pass-hitter for the first time in a few months in this game (i was still mainly training as a middle) and i thought I did ok and tried to bring some energy back to the team. However it didn't help at all as I watched from the sidelines as Unterhaching smashed us to about 17 in the last set.

This was probably the most dissapointing match of my European career, I still believe we were a better team than Unterhaching, however we did not take our chances in that 1st match and that cost us a semi final spot.

So that was the end of the season, it was really weird because I had set myself to be around for another 3 weeks or so, but the reality was I was going to go home in 5 days. I spent my last days in Germany playing a bit of beach volleyball in the 30 degree weather!!!! (summer came early) and we also had an end of year party which was a real blast. (I have to get some photos from it sometime) All in all it was a good year in Wuppertal, made some great friends and although I think I could of played better it was by no means average. I'm not sure where I'm gonna play next year but i'll keep you informed if something happens.

So suddenly before I knew it I was back in Australia! I had 6 days in Adelaide....and it wasn't nearly enough to catch up with everybody. Even though I tried incredibly hard and didn't get a whole lot of sleep some nights! I was able to have a BBQ with some close mates on the Saturday night which was awesome, as well as get down to state league to see a lot of familiar faces.

So now I'm back training with the national team in Canberra, I've been here a week and a half and the first few days were pretty shocking volleyball wise, took a while to get rid of those cobwebs and get used to the Australian setters again. It's a bit better now, but still a lot of work to do. We have a tour leaving on the 15th (team is named at the end of this week) going to France, Denmark, Croatia and Japan. I would really love to make the tour, especially playing in and against Denamrk where I will be playing and seeing a lot of good friends.

Also have to give a special shout out to Kaz and Igor who are still plugging away in there European seasons, Igor is into the final in Poland and kaz is fighting relegation from the first division. Theres a chance Kaz could be home late June!!!! talk about a long season! Were all looking forward to seeing those guys and the other senior team members after the tour.

De ja vu

Well it was almost at this time last year I talked about a pointless game against Gentofte, just before playoffs. It turnt out to be an extremely dissapointing game where nobody wanted to play at all. Now this week at times I've felt like we were in same situation against Eltmann.......... well ALMOST! Technically we can still finish 4th if Unterhaching lose to Netzhoppers which isn't likely. However I feel this game is of great importance for a number of reasons. First of all Eltmann do have something to play for, they can go from anywhere from 6th-8th on the ladder. This means there going to want to play, and will give us a tough workout before finals. (Because they are certainly a decent team) Also this season we have gone 10-1 at home, but only 4-6 away. And with our first finals game likely to be away, we gotta get some confidence playing on the road. Also we have been without Artur for a few weeks, not exactly sure what role he is going to play tomorrow, whether he will suit up, warm up or even play a little. It's important to have some rhythm with him as we go into the finals for he is an extremely important player too us.
This week at training has also been interesting. I myself (and from what I can gather) have felt flat for most of the week. We have been really sore and tired and I think to an extent mentally drained from arguably the toughest 3 weeks anytime has had in the Bundesliga when you look at the teams we have played. However all of a sudden the training lifted substancially last night, hopefully we can bring this energy to the game tomorrow.
So look forward to the match report for the Eltmann game coming soon!

The Debut!

Well it was an interesting week. To start off 1 of our last 2 middles injured his quad and we decided not to risk him, but to save him for playoffs the next week. So this left us with the replacement options as Steffan from the 2nd team, and Myself. However.... me decided to get Marcus Nitschke who retired a couple of years to go (he used to captain the team) to come back and play a one-off game. So he gets to training on thursday, trains for an hour, gets hit in the thumb and does something to the capsule.......can't play on the weekend!

So I became the new middle in an important match against #3 ranked SCC Berlin.....It was always going to be interesting!

Actually in the end it wasn't to bad. My attacking was actually pretty good (8 from 9) And although I was lost a little from time to time in blocking it wasn't by any means awful. (although I didn't get a block) I was helped with our serving for most of the game, and middle will know playing against a prefect pass in this day and age is really tough.

We ended up winning the game in 4. We won the first pretty convincinly due to our strong serving and some good plays. However we then went downhill rapidly.... SCC Started to play better, and play more quick over me after they realized I wasn't really a blocking middle! So we changed rotation a little for the 3rd and we were back in business. Jordan came on and did a good job with his distribution (Putting him to the top of the setters in the Bundesliga ranking system......he will love that) Our outsides did a solid job, nothing special but effective enough. Mads had a pretty good all round game. Oh yeh.... the 4th set, umm yep pretty at the end after we threw away an 8-3 lead. Andy got a block near the end to give us a break and then we were never headed.

So a good victory, unfortunatelly in the end it probably meant nothing. We neeeded Unterhaching to lose a few sets or the match, but they won 3-1. So now they only have to beat Netzhoppers (10th) to go through... and they should. However we have a match against Eltmann as a good warm-up for playoffs. They have the ability to go from 6th-8th so they have something to play for. Hopefully we can put them in their place!

Dueren Match

So for the second time in a week we were playing the leagues top team. Unfortunatelly for us we were playing in Dueren, were they are exceptionally strong. However we had gained a lot of confidence from our big win the weekend before and thought we could spring another suprise.
The first set started in Dueren's favour, taking an early lead. We were however able to peg them back and at the technical time-out it was fairly even. Dueren made a run to 21-18, but we came back to 21-20 and had 2 swings for 21-21, unfortunatelly we couldn't finishe the point and from then Dueren ran away to take the set to 21.
2nd set was a bit of a deja vu, Dueren took a lead only to see us make a comeback at the end, we almost got back to 18-18, but couldn't put the ball on the floor. Then the home team stepped up their game making some good plays and finishing that set to 20.
We stepped it up a little in the 3rd set and started to play some more consistent Volleyball. We took the lead at 4-5 and held out throughout the whole set. Dueren came at us a couple of times but we managed to pull away and take the set to 21 after a Peter Lyck service ace.
In the 4th it was again even until very late in the set. As was the story of the game we couldn't finish the sets as strong as we started. Maybe Dueren stepped it up a litte. I'm not sure, but either way it is something we have to work on. Dueren take the last to 18, winning the last 4-5 balls in a row. A very dissapointing way to end.
All in all we did not by any means play a bad game of volleyball. We were just 10-15% lower than where we needed to be to beat this team. Passing and serving wasn't quite as good as last week. However we are certainly heading in the right direction come finals time and we have another big game against 3rd ranked SCC Berlin at home on Saturday. This is a massive game in the context of the season!

Oh and I also love this photo of our coach Jens, I guess some people never get all the youth out of them!

A couple of good weekends!

Well a lot has happened since my last post. The cup final weekend was last week so I took the opportunity to get back to Denmark for the weekend to see Shane and a lot of the other guys I played with last year. Was able to go and see my old team play and actually got to sit on the bench as a 'physio'. Well they had a win, the first for a month so spirits were high and we had a good night hanging with all the guys and the the girls team from the same town.
The next day I went to Copenhagen to visit another Australian Nik West. Even though I was only there for the 1 night I had a great time, and the family he are living with are real nice. So it's good to see he's really enjoying himself over there.
So now to this week, we had a hard game against the #1 team Friedrichshaffen. What made it even more interesting was that they had smashed the current champions league title holder Treviso 3-0 on Wednesday. However we always knew we had nothing to lose and that they might take us lightly....and indeed they did!
After the 3rd point of the game David said to me 'Friedrichshaffen don't look to switched on today,' and he was right. It was an even start with Vfb (Friedrichshaffen) taking a few point lead. Just before the 2nd technical we were able to peg it back to about even. There was nothing seperating the 2 teams and Vfb had about 5-6 set points which we were able to side out on. Eventually we were able to take the set with a stunning Peter Lyck ace.
We came out firing in the 2nd, up 8-4 and looking really good. However as we expected Vfb picked up their game. Again it was pretty even heading into the business end of the set. Vfb ended up taking the set to 23 after a dubious call when he called the setter for an illegal block afterGagi was standing on the ground with his arms not fully extended. However we had to get over it and get on with the rest of the match.
The 3rd set was ours, we had a great start and kept it going throughout. We were playing our best volleyball for the year and making some great plays. We ended up taking the set to 19.
The 4th was similar, Vfb were in disaray and we took advantage taking a 8-5 and then 16-10 lead. At 18-11 we were looking good, and then got a small case of the jitters. Vfb pegged it back to within 3, and then 2, but to sum up Vfb's day at 24-22 they had a transition set opportunity that fell through the hands of the Vfb player giving us the match 3-1.
So a great win that most people didn't expect. However we gotta quickly regroup for an even harder game against Duren in Duren next week!

Match V Rottenburg

Well we headed to Rottenburg knowing it was a must win game. Rottenburg were a low team on the ladder, but we had shown in the last 2 away games that we were capable of losing to teams we shouldn't. Turbingen (the town where we actaully play) is a nice little student town, I'm not sure if the fact it is student dominated is one of the primary reasons why they ger 2000+ people to their game every weekend. Either way for a team sitting 3rd bottom it's really impressive.

So we started the first set a little shaky, Tommy was having some trouble from the outside and we werent taking our opportunities. We managed to play a bit better at the end to take the set to 22.

The second set was a bit of a catastrophe! (We havn't liked the 2nd set much this year) We just never got into a rhythm and we made way to many errors. Soon it was 1-1. After a deserved 'talking too' from Jens during the 10 minute interval we came out a better team. Tommy was back to his old self hitting kills at will, and Peter was also attacking well after replacing Lars at the end of the 2nd set. However we could never quite get away from a determined Rottenberg side. We ended up taking the set to 23 with a Rottenberg service error.
The 4th set was much more Wuppertal like, we started fairly equally, but gradually towards the business end of the set we made some better plays and took the set to 19, giving us a 3-1 victory.

As we were leaving my car didn't want to start, apparently a moth had eaten through some of the started cables! So we had to wait another hour or so til we got that fixed!

So now we have a weekend off, so I'm heading up to Denmark to see Shane and Westy. Should be fun. After that we have a run of 4 games til finals. We play the top 3 teams and the 6th place team. I'm confident we can cause an upset somewhwere in the and maybe grab a top 4 spot for finals!

The past few weeks.

Well it's been an interesting few weeks since our game in Leipzig. We were obviously very unhappy at the result there and needed to have a good win the next week to stay within touch of the top 4. We had a tough opponent in Moers who were only the 1 game behind us at the time. Well we played a good game, our serving was strong and our attack was quite good most of the day. Peter had a real good day. As you could imagine we were very happy and relieved to win this match, and it was a good feeling going into the next week at training.

Also the next day I had a visit from Libby and her sis Katie, the came and stayed with me from the Sunday to the Thurday. We didn't get up to a whole lot, did some shopping and played in the snow, but i think it was ust good for them to chill out for a bit while travelling around. I think they were pretty grateful to be out of the hostels and have access to washing machines and Vegemite! haha But it was certainly sad to see them go, I was enjoying the ability to speak 'Australian' and having people actually understand me.

So the game the next weekend was against bottom of the table Delitzsch. Well........it is probably the low point of the season so far. We played absolutelly shocking. We made error after error after error. It seemed anything we changed wouldn't work. We ended up losing 29-27 in the 4th. We were all really annoyed and pissd off and we knew we had to have a good week of training and a good win the next week to make up for it.

Well during the week we were dealt a big blow, our starting middle and leagues top blocker was doing a Judo exam for universty. he had to demonstrate how to fall without hurting yourself.......he failed! He hit the ground wrong and broke a bone in his upper shoulder. So he's gone for the season. So now we only have 2 middles. Jens tried to obtain another middle, but because of the lateness i the season we were unable too......Solution is I'm now a Middle Blocker for the rest of the season! It's rather difficult considering I have never played there before in my life. I do still occasionally get to play as an Opposite or Pass-Hitter so I'm really a 'utility hitter' at the moment. I think it will be an interesting finishe to the season!

This weekends game also fell on a time called 'Carnavale' in this part of Germany. Pretty much everyone in the towns of Cologne and nearby go crazy for the weekend. Every day is a party and 10 of thousands of people walk the main streets dancing to drums and following various parades. It is also sort of like halloween where you can dress up in any outfit you want. It is absolutelly crazy. I went and had a look on Saturday and ill try and get some pictures to post up here at some stage.

So to the game, we were playing VCO Berlin, who are the German Junior Team. We did not play an awfully attractive game, and it was looking bad when we went down 6-1 in the first set. However we bounced bac and from then on it felt like we were in control, but VCO are a team that always seem to hang around. Eventually we won 3-0, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23. So although not overly impressive a 3-0 win is a 3-0 win and we will take the 2 points.

So as it stands we are 5th. 1 game behind 4th, and 2 behind 3rd. We have to have a good run to get into 3rd or 4th.

Match V Königs Wusterhausen Netzhoppers

As I said in the last post the match against Netzhoppers was always going to be tricky. Although low on the ladder they are know as a tough serving team. they also like to use their middle attack a lot, which can pose a lot of difficulties to some teams. We also decided we wanted to finish quickly for Lars. For his 9 month pregnant wife had the feeling she was going to go into labour while he was away.....making him very nervous!
The start of the first set was pretty normal, mostly diding out with one or 2 transitions fom both teams. Netzhoppers lead 8-7 at the first TTO. However after this it was all Wuppertal. Our Libero Flo led the team making an incredible amount of digs in the first set. Soon we over ran them and won the first 25-16.
The second set has seemed to be our doozie set for most of the season, and in this game it was no different. Netzhoppers started winding up their serve, and the more they got ahead the more confident they got. We seemes to be down by 3-4 points the whole set. Just after the middle of the set Mads also pulled up sore in his thigh at the end of a rally, that was him finished for the rest of the match. We made a little run at the end with an ace, but we werent able to capitilize on a hit to bring us back betwen 1 point. Eventually the set went to Netzhoppers 25-21.
We came out like a team that was pissed off (probably because we were) and were soon in control going to an 8-4 lead. We just continued to keep this handy 4 point buffer without to much trouble till the end of the set. Wuppertal 25-21
The 4th set was not to much of a problem, our side out was solid and we made a break half way through the set with Lars serving ace after ace (he really wanted to get home) and were never headed. We lead 24-15, we gave them a few charity points before closing it to 19. Leaving everyone in the team happy, apart from maybe David who was running from the pig pen to the bench like a yo-yo waiting for a chance to get on. (Sorry for not making 2 bad passes in a row David)
So although not a great match, it was a win and if we have a good game next week in Leipzig it will leave us in good stead for a good quarter final draw at the end of the season.

Oh yeh and Lars still isn't a Daddy, i guess the feeling was wrong, But were still waiting!

Match V Eltmann

We were on a bit of a high after beating the team in 2nd place. However we had to be ready only 4 days later to play Eltmann. Although Eltmann are sitting in 7th place in the Bundesliga they are a solid team who on there day can trouble some very good teams.

From the first set it seemed that we were not really on our game. Eltmann started well and soon we were on the back foot. We were struggling with our attacking game and although we made a brief comeback at the end it was too little to late as eltmann took the set to 22.

The second set again started horribly, down early. However we came back and soon it was neck and nec heading to the business end of the set. We managed to save 7 set point balls and then managed to take won our 3rd set ball to take the set 34-32.

As was the story of the match the 3rd was again close. We opened up an early 8-4 lead before Eltmann had a run of 5 points in a row. (Again we get killed by a single run of points!) However we took a slight lead and managed to hold it, taking the set 26-24 on our second set point.

The 4th set looked good, we took contol at the end of the 4th set, only to throw away a handy 2 point lead with some bad attacking desicions at the end of the set. Eltmann took ful advantage to take the set 26-24.

Having been in a similar situation only a few days earlier we came out ready to win the 5th. After an even start we started to play some good ball and pulled away to win the 5th comfortable to 10.

It was great to get another win, even though we could of possibly finished it in 4 sets. I personally had probably my best game of the season with some great hitting and serving. I'm really looking forward to continuing to make an impact when i come on, and keep those starting passer hitters on their toes! We have another tricky encounter against Konigswusterhausen Netzhoppers (whos logo happens to be a Kangaroo) Even though they are sitting 9th on the ladder they have a 4-1 record at home! So it could be interesting!

Match V Unterhaching

SV Bayer Wuppertal- TSV Unterhaching

25:23 / 25:22 / 17:25 / 16:25 / 15:9

Coming into this match we had not won a league game since October. Of course this included the World Championships break, but it still felt like we were in dire straights. Unterhaching were sitting pretty in 2nd place on the table. They have proved this year to be a solid consistent outfit that has troubled a lot of the traditional power houses in German Volleyball. Only the Wednesday before they lost a 5 setter to Tourcoing in the CEV cup. Tourcoing are traditionally a high ranking side in the very competitive French first league.

We started the first set well, taking an early lead and keeping good pressure on Unterhaching with our serves. However they were up to the challenge continuing to nip at our heels right until the very end. However a great swing from Artur through the middle at 24-23 gave them no oppurtunity to make a transition. 1st set Wuppertal!

The second set we started really badly. Unterhaching's Opposite Mayer was starting to gain some rhythm and punished us by putting away some big transition balls. Suddenly we found ourselves down 8-2. However we continued to fight and little by little began the comeback. With some great swings from Tomas (who had his best game of the season) we were only a few down at the second technical. Then it was 20-20. At this time I was able to come in frontcourt for Mads, i was lucky enough to hit a kill, get a block and then serve an ace on set point to give us the set 25-22.

After the 10 minute break we came out a completely different team, and to be honest...... a pretty bad one. Our momentum was gone and we had no solid attacking options. We made some subs to try and gain a spark, but it was to no avail as Unterhaching won the next 2 comfortably.

The 5th set looked like it might be much of the same. We were down 3-1 and then Unterhaching had a swing for 4-1. Luckily Gergely got a crucial block and we were back in the game. Tomas again stood up when it counted helping us side out solidly and we went to the change of ends 8-7 up. A run of well placed jump floats gave us a commanding 14-8 lead and we eventaully closed it to 9.

It was a relieving win, we know we had played some super volleyball, followed by some real bad Volleyball. However the 2 points on the board is always handy when you havn't had a win in such a long time.

Game V SCC Berlin

Well we were all looking forward to getting some revenge against SCC in the cup quarter final. However it was not to be. To be honest it was one of the most dissapointing games i've ever played in. We didn't fight for the win and it just seemed that SCC wanted it more. I think the team is in a bit of a slump, and clearly we need to get out of it very quickly or else our goals for this season could be over very quickly. To me it just felt as though we were way to timid, we gae the opposition to much respect and didn't play our own style of game. It was really annoying seeing this from the bench. I was able to come on in the 3rd and make a bot of an impact, however I would of liked to have passed a little better. So we have a christmas break now which im really looking forward too. lets hope that the matches in 2007 start a little better than how they finished.

Duren Match

Well too put it bluntly we lost the match 3-0. 25-21, 25-22, 25-23. And it was very dissapointing. There is no doubt Duren are a good team, but they were certainly very beatable on Saturday. For example they only hit 39% kill, but we did not play anywhere near well enough to win the match.

It was a bad start from us guys, our first few receptions were not great and we were getting blocked and hitting out with only 1 on 1 blocks. As we settled we fought back, but were again hindered by our serving errors. We made 15 service errors in the first 2 sets! The second set was much of the same. We werent quite as far behind, yet could not gain enough momentum to take the lead and the set.

We started much better in the 3rd. Up 8-5 at the first technnical and were also leading to 16. (16-15 I think) However some big service runs gave Duren a 22-17 lead. Some good serving from Andi got us back to level pegging at 22-22. However another error in attack gave Duren the set and the match.

The morale of the match is, if you give away 33 hitting and serving errors in 3 sets, your probably not going to win!

So in other news we have a match against SCC Berlin on friday, then ill be straight of to Denmark to meet up with Shane, Aden, Brad, Nigel & Jarryd for xmas festivities. Im really looking forwsrd to going out (which i havnt really done since july or August) and just letting my hair down. Hopefuly I will be rearing to go for a cup semi when i get back!

Merry xmas everybody if i don't blog before then!

From One side to the Other

Well the first match back was a biggie, up in Berlin against SCC Berlin. A win would of put us in a nice position in the top 2 or 3. Unfortuntely we lost a 5 setter and went down to 5th position. It was dissapointing to lose to a team that we thought we could of beaten. We werent consistent enough. Even in the 1st and 4th set that we won, we were not able to maintain the lead we had at the beginning of the set, giving SCC momentum into the next. Also in the second we had a swing to go 9-5 up and from there we lost a large run of points. Personally I had a shocking match (As in I think my worst match as a proffesional player in Europe...That bad!!!) I started as opposite and just never found a groove, always seemed to not hit the ball right. Not to much to do what have a good week at training! Good news is after our cup win (ill talk about in minute) we have drawn SCC in the quarters of the cup. As you could well imgaine we are looking to extract some revenge!

The following week we travelled right down to the south of Germany on the Swiss border to the charming town of Konstanz. A beautiful little place on a massive lake. Could imagine it would be great over summer. So anyway the greatest dissapointment of the day was my inability to get to Switzerland! It must be an Australian thing (or just a me thing) but I find it really annoying to get within a few kilometres (in this case 100 metres) and not actually set foot in the country. This has now happened twice with Switzerland, i think it's gonna become my 'bogey' country. I realise it's probably exactly the same as Germany....but thats not the point! I wanna say I've been there!!!
So anyway Konstanz didn't put up a massive fight, we won convincingly 3-0. Even though it was a 3rd division team it felt to me that a lot of the guys were happy to get back in the winners circle. After the tournamnet and the loss last week I think some of the guys were anxious for a win. Hopefully this helps over the next few weeks. 2 Big games, next weekend against Champions League team Duren. Then a match up with the Berliners. Hopefully we can train and play well and set ourselves up for a good post-xmas season!

Rottenburg Match

The last match before the break in the German league was against the winless team of Rottenburg. However only a couple of days previous Rottenburg had taken a set of Duren in Duren, and were certainly not going to underestimate them. The first set started well with Tommy P on fire, killing everything and serving a great jump serve ace when the Rottenburg passers thought he would simply continue his float serving, therefore only leaving 2 passers in the rotation. After taking an early lead it was relativelly smooth sailing as we took the set to 21. The next set again started in our favour and we sped to an early lead for most of the set. However the nervous 20's started to creep in as they have in previous matches. Again at 20 we were unable to side-out efficently like we had throughout the entire set and we were quickly caught. Even though Rottenburg stepped up their serving it was dissapointing to let this happen to us again, it's something mental that we have to work on if we want to show our dominance and finish of games in 3 rather than 4. In the 3rd and 4th set we played like we needed too, aggresivelly and like a team that was in control. there was nothing spectacular, just solid side-out and effective transition hitting. We were never worried taking the 3rd to 16 and the 4th to 18.
So now we have played the 3 winless teams in the competition, winning all 3 in 4 sets. I think this shows that the German league goes rather deep this year, which is great because it's always good to have to earn a win every week rather than simply knowing you were going to win, which is what happened many times in Denmark last year. So now we have a tough run after the break with SCC Berlin, Duren and Eltmann. Some good wins there will leave us in a great position for a semi final spot at the end of the season.

Friedrichshafen Match

Well I was rather ecxited to head down to Friedrichshafen and play the defending champions and former top 4 champions league team. Although with a different line-up to last year they were always going to be strong, especially at home. Unfortunatelly we played our worst game of the year. To be honest we didn't start awfully bad, I remember thinking looking at the scoreline and we were 17-14 down, and having sided out 14 times from 17, the problem was the oppositeion had done it 17 from 17 times. In the end some bad serving and passing led to a few more points and we lost to 19. The second set was a total disaster, nothing went well for us. The serving and passing got worse and none of the outsides were able to kill a ball. In the end it was 25-14 going into the 10 minute break. Through the break Jens gave us a bit of a serve (which we deserved) It seemed to give us a bit of kick as we went up 8-4 with some good play and a block fom Artur when he was off the court when the point started. Again our passing and serving made it impossible to but pressure on the team, and as a consequence they came back and took the set to about 21. All in all a dissapointing game and we went back to Wuppertal with our heads well and truly down.

Match V VCO

Well Jens our coach didn't say too much about the game and i'll follow a similar trend.
It was ugly and not a good game, and we won 3-1. And a win is 2 points.

The first 5 weeks!

Well i guess so far things have been going alright over here in Duetschland. Sitting at 4-1 at the pointy end of the table is a decent enough start, and i've also settled in pretty well here.
The level of volleyball here is clearly much higher than last year, and is certainly against the good teams pushing that international level which is really pleasing. Personally I'm fairly happy with how I have played when given the oppurtunity. Although it's a different situation starting on the bench and not getting so much game time, it's something I have to adjust too. I know I've been close to starting and I'm certainly not a long way behind the starters so it's just a case of making an impact off the bench and taking the oppurtunities i'm getting given. Training is also really good here, (tough but good!) Although it feels like we run a marathon before warming up I feel like I'm pushing myself a lot more than what I have in the past. I definitelly feel very fit (but always very tired) Certainly having 12-13 quality players training at one time makes the game-like drills much more competitive, and gets much more from the team.
As far as away from the volleyball court I have actually learnt how to drive a manual to an acceptable standard! I didn't end up making an arse of myself as many times as I thought I would, now bring on the snow! Living with my flat mates David and Andy has been relativelly smooth sailing, I get along with both guys and their girlfriends Nina and Michi (have no idea if that's spelt correctly) fine. Nina is most of the time and Michi is visiting as often as she can since she lives about 3-4 hrs away. So yes it's a first time living with girls for myself, so I've had to adjust a little. Not so much walking around semi naked and making sure I leave my toothbrush somewhere where I wont pull a 30cm long hair out of it after I've already put it in my mouth!
I guess whats been a little annoying is the inability to go out and have a night out with all the guys. This is due to our games being on sunday or during the week thus far. I guess in a way it's been good with our current training regime but I know some of the guys are itching for the world championships break to let loose a little. However many times we have had the team over to our place for a couple of beers after the game, or gone down the road with Jordan, Tommy and their respective girlfriends Maja and Sasha to have a beer and a kebab, so it certainly hasn't been all bad!
As for the German language........well i'm not knowing that much. Still I think it might be more than what I learnt in Denmark last yr! We have been having lessons, but now we are going to be having proper lessons where we learn how to structure sentences. Rather than just learn word after word after word. Maybe I will learn enough so that Nina will not have to look at my blank face whenever she asks me something in German! Thats the goal anyway.
Selections for the World Championships team is announced on Monday and i'm hoping to get in the team and get back to Australia and then Japan for worlds. Club has said they will let me leave early so i might get 1-2 days in Adelaide as well as a couple extra in Canberra to abuse physio with! So ill also put the team up on the blog when I find out. I've also put a few photos up of my street and my car which i have named Fritz the Fiesta.

Match V Delitzsch

After a good win on Wednesday Delitzsch at home was looking to be a fairly straightforward affair. However this did not quite end up being the case.
The first set started with a bang, and quickly we were up 7-2. Delitzsch fought back a little to get it within 2 just after the technical timeout, however there run came to an end through some service and hitting errors and we were able to run away with it 25-20. The second set again started very well for us, a good service run and quickly we were 4 points ahead. Unlike the previous set we did not let Delitzsch back into the match and finished strong at 25-14.
After the 10 minute break we were quickly back into our old rhythm. Going point for point until we managed to put a few transitions together and gain a couple of point lead at the technical. Stretching the lead to 18-13 we were looking pretty good, but then we got a little complacement. Delitzsch put in some good serves and coupled with our hitting errors brang it back to being only 21-20 down. A couple of touches from the Delitzsch block went unseen by the ref and suddenly we were down 23-21. I mini revival got us back on track, but it was not enough as Delitzsch made the plays to win the set.
Obviously not to happy about dropping the set we were keen to make amends. However we found ourselves 8-6 down at the first technical before gaining our rhythm back. Consistently throughout the set from then on we were able to make less errors and more transition plays to win the set quite comfortable to 21 in the end.
So not a perfect game, but a win is a win and we will always take the 2 points. Tomorrow we head to Berlin to play VCO Berlin who suprised everybody by taking Unterhaching to 5 sets. I assume like all young teams they can play some very good volleyball yet maybe prone to being inconsistent. Either way we need to play a solid game to win that well and set up a 1 V 2 showdown against Friedrichshaffen.

Match V Moers

Well this was by far the biggest game for the season. Moers at home, undefeated and playing very well. And ourselves were starting to get a wriggle on after that 1st loss to Unterhaching. After initial troubles of not being able to find the stadium and driving around Moers in all directions for about half an hour, we finally made it to the stadium. Warm up was solid and we were really pumped and ready to go come game time. It was really nice to get a full house (maybe 800 ppl) to the game.
the first set started well for us with a quick 4-1 lead, this quickly spread to about 6 points at about 13-7, then Moers started to fight back. Led by their opposite Grozer (who hit some of the best balls i've ever seen) they game back to 15-16. We then however gained some control and finished strong 25-20.
The second set was a much closer affair. It was point for point for a while and then a run of good serves from our side gave us a handy 3 point lead. Hover just before the 2nd technical timeout team Grozer was able to pull it back to 16-14 in their favour. After a few good transition plays it was even heading to the end of the set. Having a few set points of serve suddenly Moers made there own play from serve and had a set point. After a side out Artur then went back to serve. 1st serve was a great serve down the seam and he let everybody know about it as Moers called a timeout. The timeout did nothing to Artur's momentum as he smashed another ace to give us a 2-0 lead and leave Moers slightly crushed after seeing the set taken away from them.
The 3rd set was absoluttely awesome from our guys.......till we were 20-11 up! A great serving run from Mads started us off, and then everyone else joined in with blocks, great swings and more great serving. It looked all over and then Grozer went back to serve. Along with some good aces we were unable to side-out for about 5 points, however things still looked rosy at 20-16 up. From then on we just seemed to lose a point here and there but it was soon 24-21 our way. A side out from Moers and we had 2 match point balls. Peter hit 1 long and Artur hit one maybe 3 inches out, suddenly it was 24 all, and it looked like we were about to lost the unloseable set! However we held our composure and began to sideout efficently, eventually a low set to Grozer was hit into Dirk's block and the match was ours 3-0. It was a bit of a scare but in the end it was a good 3-0 win against a quality team away from home. This win moves us up into 3rd place and with a win on sunday we could almost be up to 2nd. exciting times lay in store!

Match V Leipzig

Coming into the match we knew Leipzig is a game we have to win at home to finish at the pointy end of the table come the end of the season. they were a very competitive team, taking Unterhaching to 5 sets the previous week. this coupled with having Flo out injured and Lars only training a couple of times throughout the week made the task all that much tougher. However as a team I never felt the team had any doubt at any stage before or throughout the match that we were going to lose.
Similar to the Unterhaching match we started the 1st set shakily. We made too man hitting errors and not enough defensive plays and allowed Leipzig to take a lead after 10 and hold it comfortably till the end of the set.
Jens changed the lineup to bring Lars on for Peter and Myself on for Tommy. The 2nd started off fairly even and then we simply stepped it up a gear. I dont remember to many big exciting plays, but there was just some good digs from Julian (who as well as being a more than adequate stand in libero, brought half the crowd to the match) As well as some good "touch- out" hitting and suddenly we had powered through the set to take it to 16!
The third set we took off from the start, I went back to the service line and had a nice run of 7 with 3 aces as well as creating some easier blocking and digging oppurtunities for the rest of the guys. Unfortunatelly after this run I made about 3 errors in a row, so yeh i wasn't too happy about that! However the damage had been done and 12-4 lead was enough to see us finish off the set 25-18 and be in a key position going into the last.
After having a real bad start in the 4th set in Unterhaching we were looking to make sure that this did not happen again, and to start of with it did not. there was solid siding out to the first technical then a few hitting errors gave Leipzig the ascendancy. Down by a 3 points we quickly fired back with some transition hitting to be on equal terms at 15 all. Continuing our momentum we raced to a 19-16 lead when Leipzig called a timeout. At this stage we felt pretty good about ourselves and probably relaxed a little as Leipzig made us look pretty stupid by coming back to 19-19. A sideout was followed by another string of lost points and suddenly we were down 23-20, and it ended 25-22 to Leipzig.
Clearly none of us very happy about being in the 5th, I felt like we had been the better team most of the day and only a win would make me feel any sense of happiness. At first it looked bleak and we slumped to 2-4 down. Jens called a timeout and told us to be more aggressive and back ourselves. To our credit this is exactley what we did, i made a good tool from a tricky transition ball and then Lars made the shot of the day when he hit a miss hit 'rainbow ball' that decided to fall into the very very back corner of the court! After changing ends it was still neck and neck at 12-11 when Gagi put in 2 solid serves which we blocked and transitioned to give us the match ball at 14-11. Leipzig managed to save 1 but Mads hit the final kill of the match to bump his kill % up to a handy 72% for the match!
Of course we were all happy and relieved to have won the match. It was important to win and gain some momentum into the big match against Moerser on Wednesday. I thought thats Mads again played a solid match, he's been very consistent throughout the seasons so far and lets hope he continues like that for the teams sakes! Umm the middles did there job in the middle, killing the ball at a nice percentage when they had the chance (sorry guys i probably gotta push those passes up!) and Julian also made some good digs throughout the match to keep the crowd in the game!!!
So yeh Ill let you all know how the match against Moers goes ASAP!