Both teams started a little bit shaky in the first set. The score was even at 7:7, but neither we nor our opponents seemed to play their best. A small lead of 9:7 was immediately turned around by the Steelvolleys to 9:11. At 14:14 we were level again. The set was filled with avoidable errors - we had 6 service errors in this set. At the end of the set, our errors came back to bite us. After getting in front 22:21 we still lost to a good service series, in which we could not apply any pressure and did not win a single point anymore (22:25).

The second set went a little bit better. Both teams seemed to have calmed their nerves a bit. We scored a three-point lead off the bat (8:5) and could keep that for the first part of the set (13:10). Then, after a timeout, Oberbank Steelvolleys Linz-Steg 2 started their comeback and turned around the score in the middle part (17:19). In the last and deciding part of the set we showed off our mentality and great team spirit. With two strong point streaks (21:19, 24:20), we could take the set (25:21) and equalize the set score.

We now had to win the next two sets in order to avoid giving away a valuable point in the league leaderboard. But it did not look good in the beginning of set number 3. After an equal start (7:7), we seemingly got lost and went behind 11:16. It might have been a wake-up call, because we then started playing better again. After two strong streaks (16:16, 21:17), we won the set with a six-point lead (25:19).

At the start of the fourth set, we managed to continue the flow of the set before and gained a 5:1 lead. But Oberbank Steelvolleys Linz-Steg 2 did not give up yet. They took advantage of our errors and got in front (9:12). The middle section of the set played out in our favor, and we started with a slight advantage into the final few rallies (21:20). With a great final effort we closed the set 25:21 and therefore won the match 3:1. (Match details)

It has not been our best performance today, but we will train hard and learn from today's mistakes. On the other hand we showed good mentality and team spirit, and never gave up, even when things did not go as we hoped they would. We will try to present ourselves in top form in two weeks, when we play against ASKÖ Powervolleys Freistadt and VC DSG Union Altenberg on January 25th at 13:00 in Freistadt.