On Friday evening Albatros H4 played its fourth game against well-known opponent Syzygy. Just like last week, the first set proved to be difficult for lack of focus of the Albatros guys. Yet, after a 25-21 win still, the other sets were won with huge differences. After three sets Sven allowed to take off for Germany and Rik took over to finish the job. The photo was taken just before Sven left.

Tikkie. #caviasoep #albavolley #h4

Een bericht gedeeld door Albatros Amsterdam Volleybal (@albavolley) op 9 Feb 2018 om 12:22 (PST)

For the third time in a row Albatros Heren 4 managed to win it’s competition game with 4-0. This time against the youngsters of KVA Heren 5. Only the first set was close, because the Albatros guys started sleep walking in stead of playing volleyball. Yet, after a 25-22 win in the end, the other three sets were a lot easier. Also because Rik played very well as relieve setter – to protect Sam’s somewhat injured knee – as the film shows.

Bam. #albavolley

Een bericht gedeeld door Albatros Amsterdam Volleybal (@albavolley) op 31 Jan 2018 om 10:53 (PST)

Wednesday night Albatros Heren 4 gained again 5 points by winning against UvO H2. Yet, this time it was a lot more difficult than last week. After a walk-over in the first set, especially the third (25-23) and fourth (29-27) sets were heavily contested. Yet, with Edgar as second setter, the team managed to win all of them.

Onder leiding van coach René van den Berg speelde Albatros Heren 3 zaterdagavond de eerste wedstrijd van het seizoen tegen US Heren 7 in de Amstelcampus. Met Chris als goed invallende setter, gingen de eerste twee sets ruim naar Albatros, maar de derde set was heel wat moeilijker en kon pas bij 31-33 winnend worden afgesloten. Daarna was het verzet van US wel gebroken zodat de competitie met een klinkende 0-4 werd begonnen.

In the last game of the season, Wednesday against Syzygy, the H4 guys won their first two sets fairly easily. That’s what they needed to secure the heavily contested third place in our forth class poule. After that, their performance became much more sloppy and so did the game itself. A lot of emotions and protests against the referee’s decisions, especially from the Syzygy side. Anyway, the Albatros team managed to lose the next two games, after which they had to play their first five-setter this season – successfully, because they won the last set with a clear 15-9 score. Next season we should aim at the top two places!

After four games against the two by far strongest teams in our poule and a sloppy game against Arena, Albatros H4 booked a solid 4-0 victory over Syzygy on Tuesday in the Van Hogendorphal. Now we’re heading for a revanche against Arena next week Friday.
The sad news though is that our outside player Mark cannot play for quite some time because of a serious back problem. We really hope that he will recover in time to join us again at the beginning of next season.

Een bericht gedeeld door Albatros Amsterdam Volleybal (@albavolley) op 2 Nov 2017 om 12:22 PDT

De mannen van het derde hebben een zwaar seizoen in een sterke derde klasse poule waar bovendien maar liefst drie teams uit moeten degraderen. Van KVA moest dus gewonnen worden. De eerste set lukte dat heel goed (25-18), de tweede ook nog, maar de volgende twee sets moest H3 met minimaal verschil aan de tegenstander laten. Gevolg: een vijfsetter die met 15-13 uiteindelijk toch werd binnengehaald. Nu ook volgende week zaterdag SVU verslaan!

Wednesday Albatros H4 booked its first win this season, against Volamos H3. Although several players suffered from the after effects of flue, food poisoning and other mishap, for most of the time they played well and concentrated. In the first set the gap was big, 25-14, after which – as often happens – the second set went considerably less, even leading to a small loss. Yet, the team regained it’s posture and solidly finished the next two sets with good margins. Dennis, also still somewhat ill, even ended the third set with two aces.

While the Dutch national women’s team fought Azerbeidjan in the European Championship’s semi finals, the H4 guys were struggling in the Blauwwithal against a very strong VVA side. A lot of long rally’s, often strongly contended, but VVA unfortunately won most of them – hence the regular 4-0 defeat. Still, the game was close and the spirit was really good. I think we played against the two strongest sides in our poule, so results should be getting better from now.
Besides, the Dutch women won and in our hall former Albatros players Alexis and Jesse had a significant part in the VVA H1 victory in their 2nd division game. Alexis excelled in the final set and scored the winning point.

Wednesday night Albatros H4 played their first competition game in their new line-out. As Nikos moved on to H1, Sam became setter, Damian returned as mid to replace Bogdan and youth player Jesse joined the team as outside power hitter. Even though this was the very first time they played together in this new set-up and the opponent Zipangu is a very strong team, they did very well and lost only with a very small margin. More importantly, they managed to have a real good teambuilding excercise which promises a lot for the rest of the season.