With only 6 MONTHS TO GO until the Olympic Games and only 3 more months of the professional season to go, the GBW continue to live the dream,  lets see how they got on this weekend…

Belgium: Gea Happel Amigos lost 3-0 v Charleroi and lost 3-2 v Tongeren  

Gea Happel Amigos

This week, Gea Happel Amigos had two league matches; one mid week against Dauphines Charleroi and one on Saturday against Datovoc Tongeren. Wednesday’s game saw a 3-0 defeat for the Amigos. With set scores of 23-25, 18-25, 22-25 Amigos played well to stay with Charleroi who currently sit in second position in the league. Head Coach Ivo Mulder was really happy with the team’s performance and pushed his team to use this confidence for the match on Saturday.

After a good training week and a strong performance against Charleroi, things looked good for Amigos to take the win. Amigos started the match well and took the lead from the start taking the first set 25-18. Tongeren made a couple of changes in their line up and started to trade point for point in the second set. With a couple of lucky points and a loud crowd behind them Tongeren took the second set 25-23. Amigos stepped up their game and smashed the third set 25-13. Set four was a frustrating set for the Amigos as Tongeren changed again and took control of the set wining 25-22. In the fifth set tie-break, Tongeren found themselves with a match point.  After Amigos fighting hard to come back, Tongeren finally took the match 18-16 in the last, with the help from some extremely loud supporters behind them..

This was a really important match for both teams but a devastating lost for Amigos. Vicky Palmer comments: “I felt we were the better team and should have won the game in the fourth set. With errors happening at the wrong times and some tough calls against us from the referee, we just didn’t have the luck in this game.”

England: Malory Eagles win 3-2 v London Polonia

Saturday saw the youngest member of the GBW, Meg Viggars, play in her debut match for Malory Eagles, who took the win over unbeaten London Polonia in the English Volleyball Super 8′s.

Meg Viggars

There were many changes to the Malory squad this week, and this was apparent as the team started slow, with the passing unit not functioning well enough to combat the Polonia serve.  This resulted in the first set going comfortably to Polonia, 25-16. A number of changes were made to the starting six and Malory finally started to find rhythm in the passing which lead to the middles getting a lot more of the ball. With some good blocking, Malory managed to claim the second set 25-18. The third set started the same way with Malory having the upper hand all the way through resulting in a 25-20 win in the third set. Too many errors early on in the fourth set meant that Malory were always trailing and were unable to get back into rhythm narrowly losing 25-21. With the fourth set behind them Malory were determined to put the game away and were first to get to eight. With the change of sides Malory dug deep pulling out their best volleyball this season and was able to finish off their shocked opponents 15-10.

Viggars commented after the match: “I was very happy to be welcomed to the team and even happier that we got the win against the unbeaten team. It was a great team performance which will help us get to the play-offs”

Finland:

It was a free weekend in the Finnish League for Stacey O’Connor and her Pieksamaki teammates.

France: 

In Pro A France, Carters TFOC win 3-0 v Venelles

Grace Carter

Carter’s TFOC were away to 8th place Venelles this Saturday. The teams went point for point in the first set, but some tough serving from TFOC allowed them to take the set 23-25. The momentum went all TFOC’s way in the second, with a consistent, solid game and many errors from Venelles leading to a comfortable 16-25 win. TFOC came out focussed once again in the 3rd set, and after 3 recent 5 setters, they were determined to take the 3 points this time. This is exactly what they did.  After some great defence and counter-attack from both teams, TFOC were the stronger on the night taking the 3rd set 22-25.

Carter comments: “It was a great team performance, with the team playing clinical volleyball which had been missing from their game. We are so happy to take the 3 points and are ready for our next challenge.”

Quimper Volley win 3-0 v Institute Federal de Volleyball (25-10, 25-17, 25-18)

Quimper celebrate another win

Rachel Newton’s Quimper Volley carried on their winning streak against the National Junior French Team. They started strongly and IFVB broke down in their service reception in the first 2 sets. Quimper played in good system, with solid blocking and defending. IFVB made lots of errors and couldn’t get into the game. After the break, IFVB came back on court with some stronger service and some good attacks. Quimper let them back into the game and IFVB started to gain confidence reaching back to 15-15 in the final set. But Quimper stepped up their game again and set up some good plays in attack to run away with the game. IFVB made some service errors at the end of the set, and Quimper stayed focussed and won the 3rd set and the game 3 – 0.

Rachel Newton comments: “We were pleased with another solid win, and to maintain our lead at the top of the table. Our performances have been a lot more consistent the last 2 months and we all feel we’ve progressed well as a team throughout the season.”

Germany:

Alemannia Aachen lost 3-1 v Kopenicker and lost 3-1 v Dresden

Lucy with her number one fans...Mr and Mrs Wicks!

On Wednesday Alemannia Aachen were away to Kopenicker Berlin. With only one league place and a couple of points between the two teams, the result was important. In the first half of the season Aachen had taken the win 3-0 at home but knew playing in Kopenicker’s venue would be tough.

Kopenick came out strong taking a quick 5-0 lead with some aggressive serving. Aachen were struggling to settle into any kind of rhythm but managed to bring the scores back with some good blocks before a string of errors allowed Kopenicker to take the first set 25-22.

In the second set, Aachen’s passing unit settled allowing the offence to function and the set was convincingly won 25-19. Kopenicker came back in the third and fourth sets and their serves proved too tough for Aachen allowing them to win the match 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 25-19).

On Saturday Aachen were at home to Dresden who curently sit second in the league.  The Aachen crowd were blessed with the presence of Mr and Mrs Wicks, but unfortunately this was a game that Dresden controlled from their service line putting Aachen under a lot of pressure. Despite good aggression from the home team, there were too many errors from Aachen resulting in a 3-1 win to Dresden.   (25-20, 25-18, 21-25, 25-15).

Rachel Bragg’s Hamburg won 3-1 v VfB Suhl

Holland: DOK lost 3-0 v Alterno

This week Morgan and Taylor’s DOK faced 4th place Alterno in the league. After 2 wins out of 3 since Christmas, DOK were feeling more positive about the tough match ahead.

Taylor and Morgan's DOK

It was a close start with DOK & Alterno trading points until double figures. But increased service pressure from Alterno meant siding out and applying the needed pressure was more difficult! The first set ran away very quickly losing 25-12.

The second set saw a few changes in the line up, but again the serve receive unit struggled, despite relentless fighting and chasing, the set was lost 25-15.

The 3rd set followed in a similar fashion despite good effort and a spell of good serving from Morgan, the gap in points was to great to recover from and the match finished 3-0 (25-16).

DOK still remain in the playoff position but they know they have some important games to take not only performances, but well needed points from.

Poland: Silesia Volley won 3-0 v Gaudia Trzebnica

Saturday evening saw Laybourne’s Silesia Volley execute an efficient 3-0 win over Gaudia Trzebnica at home (25-20, 25-17, 25-13).

Silesia Volley took the court with a predetermined attitude to win and it quickly became evident that they would act upon their intentions. Strong serving, aggressive side out play, smart attacking from the setter and a solid serve receive ensured that Silesia Volley dominated the game. The opposition struggled to adapt quickly enough to what was being asked of them and hence the comfortable win for Silesia.

Silesia Time Out

Laybourne comments: ‘Gaudia Trzebnica are currently 12th in our league and it was heavily stressed that we needed to take all three points from the game, as we are sitting in 7th and only two points clear from the play down zone. It was great to see we could handle the pressure and at the same time display some really good volleyball.  If we can maintain the form displayed this week then our fate will be in our own hands.’

Switzerland:

VBC Biel-Bienne lost 3-0 v Sm’Aesch

VBC Biel-Bienne

Thom’s VBC Biel-Bienne played Sm’Aesch away this weekend for the last match of the regular season.  Sm’Aesch took the game 3:0 (25:17, 25:19, 25:18). It was a very dissappiomnting match for VBC Biel-Bienne, failing to perform in the way they have previously done. There was a lack of consistancy from them and it didn’t get any better as the match progressed.

Thom’s comments: “We are now going into the play-outs in 9th position so we need to see this as a new start and focus on the games ahead. We know we are now capable of beating teams we just need to believe we can do it.”

Volley Koeniz won 3-1 v Toggenburg

For Volley Koeniz, this weekend’s match vs Toggenburg (currently towards the bottom of the table) was about getting 3 points and securing 3rd place in the league which would give them 1 extra bonus point to take into the play offs. Many teams have struggled to win comfortably in Toggenburg’s home gym, and with some changes in the Koeniz team due to injury, they knew it would not be easy but it should be a win. The outcome was positive for the Bern team with a 3-1 win and the vital points in the bag, not, however, before a slightly anxious couple of sets! The home team came out strong, serving well and backing it up with excellent block defence play and Koeniz were somewhat surprised as the ball kept coming back, time after time. The home team took the first set 25-22. The second set was a similar story, Koeniz trailing by 6 points but with some strong serving they came back into the game to win 27-29. After the 10 minute break, normal service was resumed with two straight forward sets 14-25, 20-25 and winning the match 1-3.

Bertelli celebrates an important win!

Bertelli comments:  ”It was an interesting performance from us today, at times we were very good and other times we struggled. Credit to Toggenburg, their defence played exceptionally well….many times we thought the ball was dead and it popped up perfectly on the setters head! The important thing was that we got the 3 points, we had to fight hard for them but we got them! After the last games in the qualification round yesterday, we now know how important it was to win 3-1. We finished 3rd in the table by 1 point (a 3-2 win would have seen us end up 4th) which gives us the extra bonus point going into the play-offs. No rest for us, off to Germany to play VfB Suhl in the CEV Challenge Cup quarter final on Wednesday night. We know they are a good team but we will go there looking to cause an upset.”

VC Kanti lost 3-1 v VFM

VC Kanti Schaffhausen played their last match of regular season this weekend against 2nd in the league Volley Franches Montagne (VFM).  Both teams came out fighting but it was VFM who took a mid set 3 point lead.  Kanti clambered back into the game though and despite a number of set points for VFM, Kanti held on with aggressive offence and with their first set point at 30:29, Kanti took the point and the set 31:29.

The second set was another close battle with Kanti and VFM both making excellent plays.  However, despite each team holding their own in all areas of the game and some good hustling in defence, the errors crept in for Kanti, ultimately leading to the loss (31:29, 20:25, 26:28, 27:25)

Osborne

Osborne commented: “A good performance from both sides of the net this weekend and overall, despite the loss we were much happier with our game.  However, at crunch times we made a couple of errors and those probably cost us the match.  Goulet served tough and got us back to set point for us at the end of the fourth set, despite being four match points down, but unfortunately we couldn’t finish it off.  Going into the play-offs we need to address a few things but looking forward to the next few weeks!  At the end of round 2, the top 5 standings are: 1) Volero 2) VFM 3) Koniz 4) Sagres NUC and 5) VC Kanti First up next weekend.  Game 1 v Volero….”

Spain:

CV Playa de las Canteras lost 3-1 v Nuchar Eurochamp Murillo

The first game of 2012 for Beattie and her Las Palmas Team was always going to be a tough one, playing Murillo, one of the best teams in the league.  With the Las Palmas Head Coach banned from the bench calling all instructions from the crowd, this proved to be an intense game that could have gone either way.

Beattie in action for Las Palmas

Set one began in the favour of CV Playa de las Canteras, leading 8-3 at the first Technical Time out, blowing Murillo away with tough serving and block defence.  However a few errors in the middle of the set broke the momentum of the home team, resulting in Murillo taking the first set 25-21.

Annoyed by the loss in the first, CV Playa De Las Canteras came out even stronger in the second and did what they should have done in the first, winning the set comfortably 25-15.

It was a game within the grasp of CV Playa De Las Canteras, but a controversial yellow card for the opposite player of CV Playa De Las Canteras in the middle of the 3rd set, saw chaos erupt from the Las Palmas Head Coach and President in the crowd, resulting in a change of momentum for Murillo, resulting in them taking the 3rd set 25-20.

Murillo took this momentum into the 4th set and CV Playa De Las Canteras couldn’t recover, resulting in a 25-20 loss in the fourth and a 3-1 win overall to Murillo.

Beattie comments:  ”It was a great feeling to be back playing competitive volleyball after the break in the league.  It was a match that had absolutely everything, but the highlight for me, was the quality of volleyball from both teams.  I am disappointed not to take the win, and maybe if we had more composure as a team at crucial points, the result could have been different.  On a positive note, we showed that we can compete with the best in the league so if we work hard over the next few weeks we will be in contention of a final four play off position and who knows what can happen then…”

Valeriano Alles Menorca won 3-0 v Cantabria (22-25, 9-25, 20-25)