Final score: Pegasus HS 8 – WaHo HS 2 (1-3)
Unfortunately the start of our season was not that great. A 3-1 loss of the first match, but luckily we managed to make our minds up for the second match. A match Gents 2 dreamed about for months, it would be the clash of the Niek’s, battle of the middle blockers, hardworking citizen versus just a student, Heijs against Junior.
It was quite a confrontation seeing one of WaHo’s old legends Niek Heijs in a blue Pegasus shirt, especially for the ones who played in Gents 2 last year. Including veteran Arno, who helped us out for the second time in a row as a diagonal, thanks a lot! On the other hand the new players of Gents 2 (Eugène, Jos, Douwe and Aiko) just wanted to win this match and showed no mercy for poor Heijs and his team (Pegasus H8) in the Ark van oost.
During the first set many among us were still a bit confused seeing Heijs in blue, which resulted in a lack of concentration. Many unnecessary mistakes were made on our side, causing Pegasus to take the lead. Heijs forced his team to the limits, but we fought back and did not give up easily. Nevertheless Pegasus managed to win the first set with a close call, 28-26.
Our coach Mór, who was still suffering from his knee injury, made a few minor but very smart position changes for the second set. With this new line-up we already started much stronger than the first set and were finally able to take the lead. Pegasus became well aware of our new line-up and simultaneously made some changes as well, but their resistance was of too little effort. With a lot of cheering of our teammates on the side line, the players on the court kept strong and managed to win the second set with 25-21.
Mór believed in the good vibes of the same line-up and made no further changes, assuming that we would be strong enough to win the third set as well. At the beginning both teams went head to head, but then Douwe was up for serve. Two direct aces and many bad digs of Pegasus made the lead for Gents 2 bigger and bigger. When Pegasus finally managed to win a rally our score was by far out of reach to keep up with, so it was an easy victory for Gents 2 and took it to 25-18.
A lead of two to one is not an overall victory yet as you probably know. Therefore we had to make the most of the fourth set and continue the way we played in the third set. Still with the same line-up, but after playing two or for some three sets all the physical activity paid his price. On top of that Pegasus made some good position changes, which almost took initiative in their hands. At some time Gents 2 had quite a heavy task keeping up with Pegasus, but luckily for us the teammates on the side line were still full of energy and passion. Passie, Jos and Mór literally made so much noise the entire Ark van oost knew WaHo was in da house and screamed us to a victory of 28-26, after a monster block of Junior. Who is the Junior now Heijs?!
The team definitely deserved the post-match beers and cookies this time and hopefully next time in de Bongerd, we will play an equally exciting match against Pegasus H8!
