JKU USI Linz Volleyball vs SG Mühlviertel Volleys 3

Our first game of the day was against SG Mühlviertel Volleys 3. They have not won a game yet, had some really close ones. We knew, that underestimating them would be a big mistake. The first set started shaky from our side. Our young opponents showed that they know how to block effectively and neither team was able to create many attack points. Up to 6:6 the game was dominated by errors on both sides. Then, a strong service streak gained us a 14:7 advantage, which was immediately followed by a strong phase of SG Mühlviertel Volleys 3, to close the gap at 15:15. The first set was close up to 21:21. Despite winning the set with 25:21 we were not too satisfied with our performance, as we were not able to generate many good attacks, and did not take advantage of their errors well enough.

We knew that we could do better, and we showed that in the second set. We showed our strength immediately and got an early lead (10:4).  SG Mühlviertel Volleys 3 then could hold on a little bit (14:9) before we took full control over the set (20:9) and eventually won it (25:13).

The start of the third set did not go as well (5:8), but we then fought back and gained a 16:10 lead. At this point the fighting spirit of our young opponents was broken. Although they did score some more points in this set our win (25:15) was unavoidable. (Match details)

JKU USI Linz Volleyball vs ASKÖ Powervolleys Freistadt

Against Freistadt we expected a more difficult game. Although they had only won one of their three games so far we still remember our matches from last season, where both games against them were really close fights, that we could only take in the deciding fifth set.

We started strongly, carrying the energy from the last game. Our service pressure had a great effect and we jumped ahead in the first set (10:3). ASKÖ Powervolleys Freistadt then started to make some sideout points, but our own strong sideout game kept them from coming any closer (18:10). We did not take any risks this game, and finished it with a decisive score of 25:14.

The second set began rather balanced (6:5). But from that point on we slowly but surely increased our lead (14:10), before ruining the comeback dreams of Freistadt with another 4 points back to back (18:10). We won the second set with 25:17.

At the start of the third set we showed, that we were eager to close out this game in three sets. But after our early 8:2 lead Freistadt started to come a little closer again at 16:12. But we did not release the pressure and won the third set as well with a comfortable lead (25:19). (Match details)

With these two decisive wins we finally moved to the top of the leaderboard. We look forward to our last two games in 2024 on 22nd of December in Gutau, that will mark the halfway line in this season. We will try to stay undefeated against DSG Union Gutau and Sportunion Leonding and hope to see many of you again at our next home game on 11.01.2025!