On Saturday December 20th we had our last game before the break. We were 8-0 so far this season and were playing Mannheim who was 7-1 and right on our tails in the standings. This was a “make or break” game for our season. A win would put us comfortably in first place and a loss would put us a little bit on our heels going into the second half of the season. It was going to be an epic battle.......
Our games normally start at 7pm but by quarter past 6 there was well over 1000 people already in the gym with another 400 expected to show up. For the first time this season we had our own drummers! There were 6 of them sitting in the 3rd row in the center of the bleachers pounding away on their steel drums from 6:30 until the game finished around 9:30. Thank god I took an Advil before the game because I don’t think I would have made it through the whole game without a pounding headache.
The fans that were there at 6:15
Just before the match started they opened the third side of the bleachers revealing a couple hundred more fans who weren't able to find seats in the main bleachers. It was amazing how many people were there! They estimated that there was around 1400 people at our game, definitely the most that I have ever played in front of!
Honestly I don't really need to talk about the first 3 games as they were pretty crappy and we found ourselves down 2-1 going into the fourth game. We lost the first game with 3 consecutive errors on match point to lose our first, first set of the year. We were able to recover in the second game but the volleyball was still filled with lots of errors by both teams.
The third game we lost, marking the first time our team had been on the brink of elimination this season. We needed to recover for the fourth game and for the first time this season I wasn't sure that we were going to win the game. I was actually nervous going into the 4th game. The scores in the first 3 games were 23-25, 25-22, and 24-26.
The 4th game was one of the longest games that I have ever played in. The final score being 35-33 in our favour! Again though I thought we weren't going to win as we made numerous hitting errors and were down early and often. We were finally able to string some points together! Once the score hit 26-26 we kept taking the lead with the serve but weren't able to close out the match. We continued to trade side outs until finally we got the victory! Everyone was in a frenzy and so pumped up for the final game!
We started the 5th game on fire with yours truly serving 5 points in a row to go into the side switch up 8-3. We continued our good play to go up 13-8 only to let them back into the game when they tied it up at 14. Finally after the biggest side out of the game and serving for the match our setter and Jana came up with a huge block on their outside hitter to finish the game and intact our perfect 9-0 record before the holiday's!
Victory number 9!!!
After a small celebration at Saki bar it was time to head home to good old Williams Lake. But first I had to take the train to Frankfurt where I went to the Christmas market with my friend Sebastian and toured his hometown of Langen.
The beautiful Christmas tree in Frankfurt. Too bad I didn't get any more photos because my camera died.
The next day it was time to depart home to Williams Lake. After a four hour delay out of Frankfurt, a missed connection and some luck to get on the last flight of the night to Vancouver from Calgary I arrived in Vancouver without my luggage. Rozey picked me up at the airport at 2am and returned me there at 6am that same morning so that I could fly up to Williams Lake. After 48 or so hours of exhausting travel I finally made it home to see my family for Christmas minus my luggage that showed up on the 28th! All in all I was very happy to be home!
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