There are Friday nights when everything just seems to click.
This… was not one of those nights.
We marched into battle against DEO Ladies 2 in Nootdorp’s brand-new sports hall – so shiny you almost forget you’re there to play volleyball. Familiar faces all around, which promised both fun and danger.
We weren’t at full strength, but hey – we had a substitute! And optimism. And even a coach. Surely that would be enough.
Because it was Referee Appreciation Week, we began with a small gesture: a bar of Tony’s Chocolonely – purely as a token of gratitude, of course, not to influence the calls. 😉 The referee, an old acquaintance, smiled, but I could tell from her eyes: “Nice try, ladies.”
Set 1 started well… for DEO.
Ladies 2 were apparently having a brief existential crisis about one simple question: “Where is the ball supposed to go again?” (Answer: over the net. Not into the wall. And definitely not onto your own foot.) Within minutes we were trailing 12–4. Ouch. Our serves were fine, but after that… DEO found the gaps in our defence faster than I could find my water bottle. We fought back to 25–19, but that set was theirs.
Set 2 began more promisingly. For the first time in over a year, I was on the bench – and that took some getting used to. From there you see everything: the gaps, the chaos, the misunderstandings (“I thought you had it!” – “No, I thought you had it!”). Luckily, things turned around thanks to Chantal. Last week her serves were more like damp squibs; this week, heavy artillery. Balls flew over the net as if she were personally avenging last week’s loss. We were leading comfortably: 20–12.
And then… we decided things were going too smoothly. 22–22. Why do it the easy way when you can add a bit of stress? In the end, we scraped through 22–25.
Set 3 brought fresh energy – and a new face. Alyssia made her debut as middle blocker and did brilliantly. Finally some calm, some movement in the back court, a touch of structure (well, relatively speaking). Naturally, we kept it close – but we won, 23–25. Joy all around, though the chaos was never far.
Set 4 – my third set on the bench. And honestly? It hurt. As a photographer I usually choose the sidelines just behind the frontline, but in volleyball that frontline is where I want to be. I so badly wanted to play, yet at the same time… they were doing so well without me that I had to feel proud (and maybe a bit jealous). Romy smashed ball after ball inside the lines, Elisa’s sets were so unpredictable even we didn’t know who was next, and Ilse’s serve was faster than a cheetah in a hurry. DEO tried to fight back, but their morale broke somewhere around point fifteen. The set ended 19–25. We won the match 1–3 – our first victory of the season!
Afterwards there was a friendly chat with the referee (who, for the record, was definitely not bribed), and then The Hague called us home. The battle was over. The chocolate well spent. The points secured.
And somewhere in the distance, beyond the lines, a volleyball sighed:
What a night.
Love,
Milene