The volleyball players of Samen Lycurgus wanted to show something in their first home match in Groningen. They achieved this with a 3-0 win over ZVH.
Because the visitors from Zevenhuizen played well, the match had attractive moments on Saturday evening. But it wasn’t really exciting. Before that, Lycurgus certainly showed that he had more quality when playing for the big points. Against ZVH, which played in the Groningen reserve shirts due to forgetting its own clothing, the score was 25-22, 25-19 and 25-22 in the sets.
“If you just look at the numbers, we played a good game,” said Lycurgus coach Arjan Taaij. “We achieved a high attacking efficiency and the side-out was excellent. However, we had some passing errors in a row in the first set, which suddenly put us three points behind. We struggled with that for a while. Then we threw away our hesitation and won the second set quite cleanly. But in the third set we served too many errors. That is not necessary against a team like ZVH.”
Fisher and Gillis impress with hard punches
American acquisitions Cal Fisher and Cole Gilles showed what they have to offer with hard hits in front of their own audience. Both had previously suffered from injuries, but were able to perform at full speed again. Taaij: “Guus Boer and Ramon Martinez (also recovered from a serious injury, ed.) were in the starting line-up for the first time. That was nice, but Martinez got a ball in his eye before the start of the match. As a result, he saw very poorly and appropriately made a number of mistakes. That’s why I took him out in the first set.”
Despite the deserved victory, Taaij still sees plenty of room for improvement. “We are far from finished and have just started the competition. Serving and transition play remain points of attention. I’m happy that Boer has now been able to play everything. He did well. This is a good step for him,” the coach said about the 19-year-old from Dwingeloo.
Luuk Hofhuis is sidelined with a shoulder injury
Lygurgus will play against SSS in Barnveld on Wednesday, who were the surprise in the regular competition last season. “I’m curious about how they play,” Taaij said. “I haven’t seen much of it yet. We are going to delve into that now.” Lycurgus player Luuk Hofhuis was sidelined with a shoulder injury. “He will get an injection soon. Hopefully it will have an effect, because we can always use a good player.”