Last Wednesday, the 22nd of March, the General Members Meeting (GMM) took place. Here the board partially changed.
WaHo Board 2017
The board is now situated as followed (from left to right):
Senna Janssen as Commissioner Technical Affairs
Anne Hoogstra as Treasurer and Vice-Chairwoman
Daniel Hoving as Chairman
Niek de Jonge as Secretary
Rebecca Kaup as Match Secretary
We wish them all the best!
Final score: Volvera DS 4 – WaHo DS 6 (1-3)
On a sunny Saturday in march we drove, with a little detour, towards Arnhem for our match. With Wouter from Gents 3 as our coach for today we only assumed a big victory. As we drove our cars to a new build part of Arnhem, we saw a big sport center looming up the horizon. We were quite intrigued but also a little intimidated when we saw a big plastic eagle staring at us as we entered. We knew now, we entered someone else’s territory.
Last time we played against Volvera we dragged in a 4-0 victory. However, we could not recognize half of the team who was standing in front of us. Partly because the hall had really bad lighting, but they also brought in some strong reinforcement with them. As an extra the field consisted of white lines with many dazzling colored lines around it, unlike the old familiar yellow lines. We knew now that winning this match wasn’t going to be as easy as the last time. That was confirmed in the first set. From the start, it was a battle and unfortunately our battle was not without any scratches. One of our teammates focused a little too much on the ball and ran into a wall as she was trying to save it. With blood gushing down her leg, she was carried by two men off the field. As we admired her commitment to save the ball, we wanted to make our fallen teammate proud and fought back to win the set with 25-22.
The second set wasn’t our proudest moment in life. We started high in spirit, however they brought in players with a strong service and our pass wasn’t that good. It leaded to a loss of points. We did redeem ourselves and won some good rallies. Nonetheless, we lost with 19-25.
The third set was the most stressful and longest set we have ever played. It costed Wouter 5 years of his life. We were determined not to end the set as the last one and fought as hard as we could, but so did they. The tension increased and eventually the opponents got set point three times. At last the score was 27-26 in our benefit. Our wounded teammate, with a big plaster on her leg, served. Everybody held their breath. Some of us could not watch anymore. Three opponents dove on the ground to save the ball. But they could not save it, we won the set with 28-26.
As we were pretty tired and did not want to end the match with a fifth set we were determined to win this one. We started off a little slowly and had a little trouble to get back in the game. The referee wasn’t on our side this set (or the whole match for that matter). Obvious net touches from our opponents didn’t make her blow her whistle and she unfairly called our balls out. As we more and more focused our irritations on the ball we gained points. And with success, we won the set with 25-15.
After this confusing but joyful match, we had peace with a 3-1 victory. We celebrated with a lovely bittergarnituur and some cooling refreshments whilst we watched part of the WaHo Ladies 2 match. As we were about to walk outside into the Saturday sunshine, we had one last look into the eagle’s eyes and left the building as winners.
Final score: SSS DS 8 – WaHo DS 8: (3-1)
We have played quite a number of matches these past few weeks and have had a lot of fun. This time, we went to Barneveld to play SSS Ladies 8. With two cars full of players and our coach for the day (Arjen from genst 3), we arrived at a brand-spanking new sports facility. In fact, the whole of Barneveld looked new; it appeared to be going through some major development; new church, new Jumbo, a whole new city…
Walking through the sports centre, we entered what could only be described as the orangest changing room we’ve ever seen. Even the light bulbs appeared to have a hint of orange to them (or maybe it was all that orange bouncing off the light?). How very Dutch. The sports hall where we played our match was (also orange, yes, but that’s not what I was going to write!) big and full of noise; two other matches were taking place at the same time (WaHo Gents 2 was on court at the other end). The place was full of volleyball players and a good number of spectators.
The first set started, and what a set it was. It would undoubtedly be considered as one of the tensest, closest (and longest!) sets we’ve played yet. Although it was only the first set, it felt like the last of five; everyone could feel the tension; it was tense even watching from the side benches. We were so close to winning the set (24-26), it had some amazing rallies and it really could have gone either way. There was a lot to be happy about.
We started with the second set high in spirit and positive (and a little frayed!) off the back of the first set. There were again some good rallies and points scored. However, we weren’t able to capitalise on things as much as we would have liked and lost the set 16-25. Things unravelled somewhat in the third set and we weren’t able to give the opponent as tough a challenge as before; we lost this one 10-25.
But, the popular idiom “good things come to those who wait” is probably the best way to describe the fourth set. We started off very well, so much so that the opponent’s coach called a time out quite early on. Just like in the first set, we had some good rallies and scored some excellent points, and with that we were able to advance with a big lead. We seemed to have re-gathered our focus and determination, even if it was the last set, because we won the set 25-16. In hindsight, maybe the song “What took you so long?” would be a more fitting way to describe set four… In any case, we were so happy that any spectator would have thought that we had won the whole match!
There were some very positive aspects to take home from this match; we won a set and gave SSS Ladies 8 a fairly tough time. In addition to that, we had a good time. If only we had won the first set, it could well have been our match. In the end, it wasn’t, but we’re facing them again on 23rd March and we’ll aim to “turn the tide” in our favour this time around!