The matches of Gents 3 versus S.V.Z.W. usually pose quite a challenge and this time 7 players and a Gerben set out from Enschede (and Hengelo) to answer the call. A call to break free!
The battle plan was simple: Hop off the train, put orange bouncy thing through orange high thing and be on our merry way back east before they knew what hit them. With the knowledge from our inside man Glenn, who had been undercover in Wierden for some time, we were confident of our victory.
The first quarter started according to plan as we were able to quickly sneak in a couple of lay-ups and take a small lead. The S.V.Z.W. time-out however, turned the tide as they decided to change their box-out strategy from man-to-man to man-to-Stijn. From this point on there were usually at least 3 people taking hold of Stijn’s arms. This made it impossible for Stijn to be subbed and he was forced to play for most of the 40 minutes of playing time. The second quarter our defence stood as one, but still S.V.Z.W. managed to take and extend a lead. In the third quarter we had a breakthrough: What if we would just fight for two? Our breaks were fast and their defence didn’t last. Their man-to-man didn’t stick, because we were too quick. We intercepted their passes more and more and won this quarter by four. The fourth quarter we broke three and gave it our all. At some point Mike even blocked the ball. Two refs called it clean, but the third one thought it was mean. He called Mike out on his dirty foul and gave S.V.Z.W. the ball. In the final minutes of the match Gerben broke three and entered the court. Immediately he was charged by what seemed like a bulldozer and was almost floored. “This isn’t volleyball you see?.” We didn’t quite agree. For Gerben it crossed the line rather literally in fact: When taking in the ball, he overstepped. His foot was still in the air, but the ref didn’t care. In the end maybe victory wasn’t meant to be, the final score was 54-33.