Game 9 - Panathanikos

We are officially in first place with 2 matches left in the first round.  We won with Panathanikos, who was in first place, 3-1.  The first set Panathanikos jumped out to an early lead as I came out of the gates really slow.  I think my first three attempts in attack were a block, an error and a dig.  Took me a little while to actually get into the game but I was fortunate enough to have my teammates do their thing and lead the way.  In the middle of the set we were all in the groove and battled back to tie it up in the 20's.  We had our older and more experienced middle playing this match and he has one of the best serves in the league...39 years old.  Boco, our older middle, went back and pretty much closed the first set out by him self from the service line.  It was a good feeling to know that we weren't playing our best and still won the set.

Group celebration after a point. 

In the second set we jumped all over them with more energy knowing that we needed to try and close them out as they were down.  I think we came out with a 4 or 5 - 1 lead and never really looked back.  With consistent serving and good passing our setter could really distribute the ball and throw their block off.  I'm not sure the final score but we closed it out pretty comfortable.

The third set we built a lead and were looking strong.  I think we lead in the first time out 8-5 and maybe later in the set 17-14 but we had a minor brain fart and some bad reception that lead to a bunch of errors and a sway in our momentum.  Panathanikos took us down 25-22 or something like that.

Fourth set was all us.  We knew we couldn't lose a point to them and came out on fire.  We built a safe lead and never looked back.  Our offense was smooth and almost every ball was going our way.  We made some digs that lead to some off the block swings for points.  We took the set 25-15 I believe.

Hercules at the top!

It was a nice way to start our Christmas break even though we didn't return back to Thessaloniki until 615 am the next day... LONG BUS RIDE!  However it is always nice to go into a break with a win and confidence.  Ryan Owens, the other American on our team played really well and was awarded the MVP of the 9th week on a side note.  It is really nice to see our team gelling as the days go by and the playoffs get closer.  I hope we can keep it up!

Slice down the line for my first point

Boco 

I think this was the last point of the match