The boys of Gents 5 began their season with many team members having no previous experience playing volleyball in an organized, competitive setting. One of the teams’ major seasonal goals was to learn the classic 5-1 system, and for everyone to become comfortable in a specialized role on a volleyball team. The match against GGV Gents 4 in Leiden ended up being an excellent opportunity to put Sovicos HS 5’s training/studying into practice, with players having played the entire match with their designated roles. No more camping volleyball!
A couple weeks before, Gents 5 had gathered at their captain Andrew’s house for an off-court volleyball lesson. With a ping-pong table, some tape, and a couple of labeled party cups for the setter, outside/diagonal hitters, and middles, the team got to study player positioning and rotations from a top-down perspective. (Seen in the picture). Trainer Vincent rearranged the cups to simulate how players on the court would react to different game situations, and explained what the expectations for given player roles were during play. The team meeting was very helpful, fun, and gave the team the confidence to try the 5-1 system in their following matches.
The match on December 19th began as one might expect from a fresh team who had just learned 5-1: it was chaotic. This would be Nigel’s first game playing as one of the team’s setters, and would be seen scrambling to find the right spot on the court during serve receive. This would be quickly ironed out, and by the 3rd and 4th set Nigel could be seen strategically placing himself on the court to get himself into a much better position for setting the hitters up after a pass. Gents 5’s other setter Yusuf, who was having some muscle pain before the match, was able to provide a passive role from the side as both a stand-in coach and offering greatly appreciated moral support with his many cheers.
Gents 5’s middles would feature Bastiaan, Frederic, and Andrew, who all had plenty of opportunities to showcase their blocking abilities throughout the match. Bastiaan got to experience just how frequently he would have to jump in his new role, having remarked afterwards “Wow you weren’t joking Andrew, I can really feel the leg muscle soreness after jumping around the whole match”.
On the outside spot, you could find Ivan, Rafael, and Ray. Ivan continued his trend of providing a cannonball of a serve that was very difficult for the opponents to receive. Ray was able to popup balls that were millimeters away from touching the ground for some crazy defensive plays. In the diagonal hitter positions were Borja – who could be seen chasing down some shanked passes to keep the ball in play, and Lucas who had himself a couple of aces! (I believe this was his first!)
The MVP of the match would have to be Rafael, who greatly impressed the captain with his on-court leadership. Rafael’s communication and initiative to call, and pass some of the harder hit balls was a step above during this match. Not only that, but his ability to organize the team and orchestrate plays meant that the captain got to kick back and relax from the sideline for a set or two. The majority of the match’s offensive plays could also be attributed to Rafael’s outside hitting.
Ironically enough, while the first set had some of the most confusion and chaos as to who was where in the rotation, this would unfortunately be the only set that Gents 5 would come out with 25 points against GGV. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sets, while lost, still gave the team a feeling of confidence for future games as the team became much more confident with rotations, positioning, and individual player roles.
Here’s hoping the next game against Punch Delft features Gents 5 running the 5-1 system like a well oiled machine. We’re looking forward to it!