It will be a huge task for the handball players of Drenth Groep Hurry-Up to finish second in the standings. Against direct competitor Volendam, Saturday evening in Zwartemeer was lost 30-32.
The Drents should have won to increase their chances of finishing in the top two teams in the HandbalNL-League. They will soon play the final matches for the Dutch title. Lucky in an accident is that Aalsmeer, the current number two behind the unthreatened leader Lions, played a 29-29 draw against Bevo. The North Hollanders now have 10 points, followed by Volendam with 9, while Hurry-Up remains on 7 points.
So the Zwartemeerders are not completely without a chance to reach the final duels for the Dutch championship. However, Hurry-Up cannot afford to lose in the coming weeks.
It did not look like a loss for the home team in the first half. The duels of Hurry-Up and Volendam are always fought on the cutting edge and are always exciting. That was also the case this time. The Drents, who had not yet lost to the Volendam team until Saturday evening this season, fell behind in the beginning. After that, Hurry-Up fought alongside and past the visitors.
Goalkeeper Boris Tot is important for Hurry-Up before the break
That was in no small measure the merit of goalkeeper Boris Tot van de Zwartemeerders, who excelled in that phase. The Croatian saved three penalty throws in an unparalleled way and made many other good saves. That all led to a 15-12 lead for coach Joop Fiege’s men at halftime.
In the second half, however, the game started to turn in favor of Volendam, which started to play better. The coverage of Hurry-Up started to show holes, which shooters like Robin Nagtegaal (top scorer with nine hits) and Jordy Bayens (seven goals) knew what to do. Goalkeeper Tot van Hurry-Up was increasingly unable to answer.
In addition, the Drents alternated good moments with too many sloppiness. Hurry-Up thus linked up with the mediocre second half in the previous game against Bevo, when a 33-33 draw was played and a point was lost completely unnecessarily. The smart and well-playing Volendam took full advantage of the Zwartemeer ball loss on Saturday evening and took the lead after 16-16.
In the second half, Hurry-Up starts to catch up
Hurry-Up was behind the times from that moment on. Via 20-22 it became 21-25 and 23-27 for the visitors, who will again be the opponent of Hurry-Up in the final for the national cup on May 18 in Almere. The Drents did something back in the final phase, but the counteroffensive was launched too late. The super fast Portuguese Goncalo Gracio brought the Zwartemeerders 29-30 to one point in the absolute final phase, but Bayens immediately increased Volendam’s lead 29-31 to two goals.
In the last thirty seconds, Hurry-Up circle player Sjoerd Boonstra and the excellently playing Volenda player Tim Roefs brought the final score to 30-32 with their goals in a match, which also occasionally had to deal with a power failure due to the fuses blowing.