_{By Heide “Heideken” van Dorst. Edited by Carey-Louise “Kers” Roch}

_{A.R.S.V.V. ALCAZAR/ERASMUS LADIES 2 – SCHOVOCOMCA 3}

_{Location: Erasmus Sports building}

_{Time:   1 October 2009 21.00}

_{Result:             1-3}

_{Coach:  Bernhard aka Sit-up drill instructor}

_{Supporters: Enthusiastic unstoppable Mike, the a little less loud Quincy, board representatives Annet, Madelon and Aletta, curious former Ladies 1 Suzanne, Anne, Annemieke and in the final set H1 seeking the excitement that was missing during their own match.} 

_{October the first, the Ladies 2 team was thrilled to start the game. All ready to go, we started with our well-trained bodies (300 sit-ups during practice of drill-instructor Bernhard) with a extended warming-up. This was possible because almost everyone was already in the sports building from 19.00 assisting at the matches of Ladies 1 and Ladies 3.}

_{At 21:00 we finally started our match which would be characterized by hard work, good spirit and a strong try-out of all Carey’s yells  - ”1 2 3 4, put your kneepads on the floor”, “<Marianne> moves, <Marianne> scores!”, “Ace, whooh”, “Let’s do it, do it, do it, don’t stop don’t stop, don’t stop”, ..}

_{Somewhat wiser from the first match, which we unfortunately lost 0-4, we started of strong and solid.}

_{Good rallies with quite some blocking (when I say brick, you say wall, Brick, Wall, Brick, Wall), and a strong opponent led to a close set, 25-23 in favour of the opponent. This set gave us hope for the next one. And that hope didn’t fly away, because we struck the opponent down with a perfect 2nd set. Our first set won this year!!!!!}

_{Apparently too much energy was spilt during the 2nd set, because the 3rd one was given away to the Schovocomca ladies. The fourth set we started a bit lost, and gave away a lot of points quickly. After a time-out Bernhard confronted us with our unhappy faces in the field and commanded us to just play our game as we have shown earlier and to enjoy the match. The situation didn’t look good: being behind 10 points and an opponent needing only 8 points to finish the set…  What happened next was a thrilling turnaround. H1, who just finished their own match, stood alongside the court. Mike started with the yells Ladies 2 just learned him: DO it, DO it, DO it, DON’T stop, DON’T stop, DON’T stop!!}

_{Gaining point after point, while the yelling was getting louder and louder, the gap was closing at a steady pace. Making the opponent very nervous, and somewhat irritated by our continuous cheering. Unfortunately the comeback came a little bit too late, resulting in a 1-3 defeat.}

_{How remarkable was the enthusiasm our team felt by our efforts and the disappointment of Schovocomca despite their winning. The match was celebrated with a loud final “1,2,3,4, get your kneepads on the floor”  followed by the words put into action. The coach and top 1 supporter Mike ran into the field to congratulate us on our display of unmistakable talent!}

Match report by Carey-Louise ‘Kers’ Roch 

Alcazar ladies 2 vs. Vollido

Location: Hendrik-Ido-Wherever

Time:  Saturday 31 august 09 – 13:00

Players: Lies (S), Heide (M), Marianne (M, B), Flora (M, B), Djoeke (B), Iris (B), Carey (S)

Cars:   4

TomToms: 1 working, 2 not working, 1 not purchased

Coach:  Bernhard ‘hit the shit out of the ball’ Keller

Result: 2-2, our first tie :) 

How to get to Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht

One could forget that one always passes Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht when visiting the parents and use a crash test dummy version of a Nokia that needs rebooting every time you take a left or right turn. And so we did in car nr. 4, containing Heide our chauffeur, trainer/coach Bernhard squeezed in the back, and myself. This car was the last to depart from Rotterdam, because of two batches of chocolate chip cookies for birthday boy Gerke that didn’t turn out right.  

Heide pulled out a pink Nokia with a large crack on the screen that enthusiastically called out: “ga na 100 meter rechtsaf”. Unfortunately we had to get to the car first, so we took a left turn, and this may have been where the navigational trouble started… For some reason the Nokia remained suspiciously quiet when we left Rotterdam and for some other reason Heide wanted to follow signs saying ‘Ijsselmonde’. This resulted in leaving the highway and then getting back on it at the exact same intersection.This may seem as a waste of time to you, and I can confirm it is.  

In the mean time Marianne was having trouble with her TomTom as well (I forgot if it stopped working or if she hasn’t purchased one yet). Her approach: just drive... Finally she stopped over near a few guys, waved her long hair and batted her eye-lashes at them and they put her on the right track. At this time Djoeke already arrived. Her approach: “Hm, dit is lage kade en ik zoek de hoge kade – ah, we zijn er”. 

Back to Heide’s Volkswagen, still on the A15, A16 or something: After some time we actually saw signs saying Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, at which Heide’s eyes started shimmering and she happily exclaimed “I regocnize this, I always drive here”. I then chose not to comment on that, and I will not do so now.  

We gave up on the pink Nokia (honestly, pink!). Bernhard called in the help of Corjan, who for some obscure reason knows Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht very well and thanks to him we didn’t get lost in this exciting, bustling metropool. It was a good thing Heide and I were already a good deal excited because we had only half a minute to warm up when we finally arrived at the Ridderhal. 

How to handle Vollido

We started of with a nice set. The other girls weren’t that good, so we made quite a few points. But we also made mistakes, such as me using a different system than Lies (the other setter). Luckily Lies set me straight quite soon, and I left her balls alone. We played okay and were well ahead, but in the end the opponent took the lead. I would consider this set a good warming up as it finished in 17 – 25.  

Bernhard did not lose his cool and neither did we: we all went into the second duel with justly confidence. Vollido commenced with their Sparta yell (lalalala, lalalala, hey hey hey Vollidoooo), spelling their club name. Of course we didn’t take that lying down. We chanted and clapped our “Do it, do it, do it – Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop!” with a little shaking of the bum, as we raked in point after point. The mood was good and we kicked their behinds with 25 – 16.  

During the third set we kind of lost our focus and Vollido didn’t make enough mistakes (17 – 25). But the fourth set was ours: We were going strong, cheering loudly (‘when I say brick, you say wall’, ‘Iris moves – Iris scores’, ‘Do it Do it’, etc.) scoring by attacking nicely, coming back from the net as Madelon thaught us in the previous game. 

We did have a little relapse, though. But then Bernhard frowned at us during a time-out: “stop the cheering and focus”. We took that advice. But when Flora made a kill block, Marianne still secretly whispered to me: “When I say brick, you say wall, brick wall!” 

I was (and still am) real proud of my team buddies during the second and especially that last set: Iris took her three steps and hit some real nice balls, Heide smashed right into the middle of the other court, Marianne gave the opponent trouble in the back field with her serve, Lies suprised the other team with some nice tips (considering that she is… well… tiny), Flora showed us what a kill block is all about, while Djoeke killed some attacks and as for me: I served 7 times in a row. Also the passing was steadier and we concentrated well, and at the same time kept our positive vibe. And our efforts payed off: 25 – 18 XD! 

So we were all on top of our game. It’s our first time to win two sets! And we actually had the best result of all the ladies teams that day. The gents claim they won, but I think Ladies 2 was the best Alcazar team of this saturday! And we’re all excited to get back in the sports building and work towards the next game. 

How (not) to spend your time after a match

Lies, Bernhard and me squeezed into Djoeke’s sports car and sped back to Rotterdam. Soon enough we encounterd a traffic jam on the A16 and we decided on a little detour. None of us knows where we were, but we ran into a snackbar called LiSan (as I can tell from my bank statement) and enjoyed fries and ‘groente-kroketten’ while discovering nearly half our team is a vegetarian and that Lies is royal or something. She insists her name is ‘Lies’, but we saw on her ID that she is actually ‘Lisanna Jonna Hooft van Huijsduijnen’, and we will call her that from now on in addition to “your highness”. We also suspect that snackbar ‘LiSan’ is part of her empire. 

The cute guy from the snackbar pointed out the right direction and we all folded ourselves back into Djoeke’s race car to get to R'dam CS aka 'De bouwput'. While the rest of Zuid-Holland was stuck on the highway from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht to Rotterdam or somewhere else on the roundway, we talked marriage and soccer enjoying the beautiful view of the Kralingse Plas. 

Djoeke dropped Bernhard and me of at Sporthal Oost in Schiedam, where we totally lost our victory mood watching Ladies 1 taking on the Caribbean Somethings. There was a huge crowd, unfortunately they weren’t very amusing. At that the referee didn’t know half the rules or he would apply them randomly, at which Bernhard would loudly yell: Schicke (or something - but I’m pretty sure it started with Sch…). 

The good thing was, somewhere between the gymnastic equipment they were selling Antillean snacks("het is eigenlijk niet legaal, dus niet verder vertellen" – well dûh...), which was much to my liking. I think we should do that as well. And fortunately the game was over soon, so we could all go back to Rotterdam to watch a proper game of volleybal (Libanon, regiodivisie), have dinner and mess up Gerke’s appartment under the cloak of ‘celebrating his birthday’.