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This season, Albatros Heren 1 has started almost every match with a different squad, and this time was no exception. Two injured players, Andrea and Pedro, and two missing players, Anderson and Andrew, along with a missing coach, Alex, meant that Artem had to assume the coach position and Michal started as the first setter. In order to have two middles, we invited a young talent from Heren 2, Mateo, to join the team.

The match was expected to be challenging as we were playing against VVW, who was ranked number 4 in the standings, and we had previously lost to them in an away match. During warm-up, Michal and Artem tried to find a good tempo to play fast balls with Mateo.

In the first set, we started on an unusual court side, and VVW took immediate initiative, penetrating our service-receive defense. However, Lorenzo started delivering good passes, and we were able to recover and equalize in the middle of the set, ultimately taking a lead and winning 26-24.

Despite finishing strong in the first set, we lost focus in the beginning of the second set. Good timeouts and feedback from Artem and Andrei put the team back on track, and Stefano and Hilliard were able to penetrate the opponent’s block. The second set ended with a more convincing 25-22.

In the third set, Michal started using middles more, and VVW could not find a defense against Mateo and Johannes, who finished the set with powerful jump services.

The last set was a challenge against ourselves, but it seemed that the opponent did not have enough energy to take it away from us. A few times Michal put Stefano on an empty net, resulting in strong attacks, and Mateo delivered a couple of aces and attacks within the 3-meter line. Although combinations and pipe did not work well this time, our consistent regular playing was enough to win the match.

Albatros HS1 will face the top team from the pool, and Marat’s ex-team, on the next Wednesday.

Big thanks to Rob, Jan, and Kier for their perfect reffing of the match.

Albatros HS 1 vs VVW HS 1
Result 4-0 (26-24, 25-22, 25-16, 25-20)
Team: Andrei, Artem (❤️ coach), Hilliard, Johannes, Lorenzo, Mateo, Marat, Michał, Stefano
15 Feb 2023 at Wethouder Verheijhal, Amsterdam

M.S.

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Met twee geblesseerde spelverdelers toch nog kampioen worden in de tweede klasse, het is Heren 2 gelukt! Waar de wedstrijden tegen Smashing voorheen altijd in een vijfsetter eindigde moest er nu gewonnen worden in Diemen met minimaal 3-1. De eerste set lukte er vrij weinig. Al snel stond er een 25-19 op het scorebord. Daarna was het verzet wel gebroken (16, 19 en 20 punten voor Smashing) en sloeg Levi weer ouderwets over de blokkering heen. De mannen willen niet omhoog, het kampioenschap was niet nodig, maar toch smaakte de barbecue na afloop net iets lekkerder.

Albatros HS 1 played a home game against a team from Haarlem, Spaarnestad HS 7. Number one team against number 8. According to the group statistics this should have been a pretty easy game, it was slightly different.

Set one began with an early four point advantage from the opponents and most of the set we had to catch up, that has put some pressure on our game. We struggled with passing and going through the opponents block, which was much better compared to the previous games we had. Fortunately we stood our ground and after pretty equal 40 points, we managed to take the set 25:23.

Sets two , three and four were visibly different. We played with much more conviction, attacks went neatly through, our strong service forced the opponents to give many free balls which we used without any mercy. With a good pass the setter was able to set fast balls to any player he wanted therefore losing the opponents block. As a tradition we tried to make our setter finish the game by rotating him to outside position and using Stijn as a setter. After four failed attempts of hitting the 3rd meter, Johanes ended the game by tippin the ball into the middle of the field.

In summary it took us a whole first set to recognize what we were dealing with. Afterwards, we managed to play and win smoothly. Thing that none of the opponents haven’t done yet is cheering during the game, it seems like all of them underestimate the power boosting team confidence. Also Maaike promised us a cake if the last set would be won 25:10 (or less), which we unfortunately didn’t accomplish. Better luck next time!

10.11.2021 Albatros HS 1 vs Spaarnestad HS 7
Location: Wethouder Verheijhal , Amsterdam
Result 4:0 (25:23 , 25:19 , 25:17 , 25:18 )

Team: Michał , Marat , Andrei , Stijn , Pedro , Johanes , Aaron, Maaike (coach)
M.K

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Albatros HS1 faced Zaanstad HS 5 on the last Friday of october. Missing a few players forced us to put Marat in the middle position and we had to resign from having a libero due to Lorenzo’s injury.

Heren 1 faced Croonenburg HS1 on Wednesday 13 October, an opponent they had never met before. Not knowing what to expect, we started aggressively which paid off immediately. Gaining a huge early advantage we dominated the first set and won undisputedly 25-13.

Second set brought some surprises. Again, we started extremely strong and gained a significant advantage of 8 points which later evaporated in just one set-up. Croonenburg was definitely more aggressive in serving and all of the sudden from 19-11, we went to 24-24. Luckily we had our multi-talented Marat who was used as a substitute to play both middle and outside hitter. We played point by point till we managed to rip the set off towards us winning 31-29. It felt like the end of the match, but we had another two sets to go…
After the shaky second set, the third set was basically a mirror reflection of the first set. Strength in every aspect, good passing, great setting and consequent attack gave us an easy win 25-15.

The fourth set was more competitive. Head to head score till the middle of the set didn’t show a clear winner. Then all of the sudden a few great serves in a row gave us a visible advantage. It was 24-21, when Michal, our setter-wannabe-spiker, decided to stay in the left front position, to have golden-hands Hilliard set up the ball from position 2/3. We passed perfectly, Hilliard had his hands up to set the ball and he played it to the middle! Pedro didn’t score, and the ball came back. Another opportunity for Michal to finally close the match. As the ball was set to his direction, he flew into the air as high as possible… only to cramp up in the middle of his jump and hit the block! The cramp in his calf was so bad that we had to use an ‘illegal’ substitution. Andrei stepped back into the field. Croonenburg served, we passed, we set, and we scored. 25-22.
Although we won 4-0, it should definitely have been a smoother win. Second and fourth set brought some easy mistakes which almost cost us the set! We know what to work on, on upcoming training sessions.

M.K and edit from M.d.J

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Heren 3 played Saturday their re-match against Armixtos H3. Two weeks ago they won 4-0 at home in the Verheijhal, but this time they played at a very special venue: the Sporthallen Zuid, normally used for international volleyball games. Maybe too special for their liking, because all H3 players performed less than usual. The result was a sound 4-0 loss and a clear need to focus on training the service pass, because that’s where it all starts.

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Donderdagavond speelde het vernieuwde Albatros Heren 3 een wedstrijd tegen KVA H3, ook een mix van ervaren en jonge spelers. Een heel spannende en goede wedstrijd die pas met 16-14 in de 5e set door KVA werd gewonnen. Goed om weer een aantal spelers te zien die lang afwezig waren (Chris, Melvin, Jesse, Ulas) maar nog beter om de twee zich snel ontwikkelende jeugdspelers Mateo en Mika in actie te zien. En Herman heeft voor het eerst na zijn ernstige voetblessure weer een set gespeeld!