GVK Drops Final Derby Against Hylte/Halmstad, Sweeps RIG

Gislaved and Hylte/Halmstad line up for introductions before Wednesday's match

"Too bad we didn’t show up"

Gislaved hung okay in the derby against Hylte / Halmstad, but the reigning Swedish champions were too much to handle. “As it stands, it's not good from our side at all,” says coach Dick Runesson.

Gislaved-Hylte / Halmstad 0-3 (21-25, 18-25, 19-25)

 The beginning of the match was catastrophic for GVK. In front of 400 spectators, the team trailed 2-10 and the match seemed to lean towards a clear Hylte/Halmstad win.

They lost the set but gained momentum, fighting back to 20-21, but it was not enough. It seemed all match that Gislaved was not quite enough.

“That is attitude-wise. We have become such amazingly worse volleyball players suddenly. I do not know if it is so difficult to play in front of a large crowd, but then you have to deal with something else. It is this that drives us: frequent matches, a great audience. We tried to build the energy up today, but we did not do it.”

What was it that made you suddenly could not rise up? You had a 3-1 upset over Lindesberg and a good match at Engelholm.

“Not everyone was in the match [mentally] today. People played for themselves here and there, and that is no good. We have to play together for it to give full effort.”

Yes, it's a team sport.
“Yes, I've heard that,” laughing Runesson. “But honestly, there were many who acted for themselves and that is not okay.”

But if it was so bad, then it is surely positive, but a pretty even match numerically?
“It depends on what eyes you see it with. We must do a better team effort next game, otherwise we’re going to get beat. It's that simple. There is no denying about.”

The match is long gone and Runesson seem to want to go home. But before he concludes with one last quote: “It's too bad we did not show up better. Sad but true …"

GVK Ran Over RIG Falköping

Bittersweet win following Lina Johansson's Injury.

Gislaved Volleyboll Klubb is a winning team again after winning in straight sets against RIG Falköping, but it was bittersweet.

The score was 20-8 in the third set as Lina Johansson stepped up and smashed into 21-8. Something happened in her landing, and she was lying on the floor with severe pain in her knee joint.

Lina Johansson attacks against RIG

"She slipped a little when she landed and her knee twisted some. She's had a cruciate ligament injury in the right knee before but not in her left. We believe that the knee dislocated but we do not know yet," said coach Dick Runesson.

Bad Timing
The damage to Lina Johansson came at the wrong time, says Rune Andersson. "She had a tough start to the match but then returned in the third set and did absolutely fantastic. Then this..."
Värnamo Nyheter was in contact with Runesson Sunday evening to get the latest information about Johansson's injury.

"She came home [from the hospital] and we know that there were no skeletal injuries. Her knee is still very swollen and you can not do an MRI until the swelling has gone down. So right now I do not know much more than that," says Runesson.

Tough Start
GVK had to face meeting against league's last-ranked RIG following two straight 0-3 losses [to EVS and Hylte/Halmstad]. In addition, the team had a lot of ailments during the week. At the start of the match, RIG saw little resistance and took an early lead.

"Clearly our sicknesses affected us today, but everyone performed very well when they came in. It was a little slow at first but we turn it around and come back very strongly," says Runesson.

Lisa Tannerfalk goes for a kill against RIG

Yes, GVK pulled themselves together and did a full team-effort, winning 28-26 in the first set, followed by a 25-22 victory in the second. GVK controlled the third set easily, winning 25-12.

"We really makes a good team effort today. Looking back to the Hylte/Halmstad match, we cannot compare energy-wise and we did not have fun on the pitch. We do not know why that happened but when we play as a team, we are great. That's what we did today, "says MVP Lisa Tannerfalk.

RIG has only won one match this season and they are team that GVK can beat, at least if you look at the paper. "There are no easy matches in this series. All teams have taken sets from one another, so we can not underestimate any opponent. I think RIG played very well today"

How important was this victory then?

"Extremely important. We are approaching playoffs now and it was obviously good to really control them in the last set," says Tannerfalk.