Gislaved Unable to Measure Up

Fantastic playing by Amanda Länkinen was not enough. "We did not rise up to the level that we are capable of" says Gislaved's MVP.

FINAL SCORE: Gislaved 0 - Katrineholm 3 (15-25, 20-25, 17-25)

One hour of play lost in straight sets. So it stood after Katrineholm visited GVK on Saturday. If we look at the pre-match comments, there was no big surprise.

"Katrineholm is a really talented team and we really need to play at our highest level if we are to beat them," says GVK's libero Amanda Länkinen. "I think we [rise to the challenge at] some moments, but not consistently. Overall, it was a little too many offensive errors and that can't happen against the top teams."

Self said, Amanda had a really good effort and held a high standard throughout the match.

"I am satisfied with my effort and my performance feels good. But it's never fun to lose."

Before the playoffs begin, GVK has two more matches against the top teams in the series. Matches that Amanda is looking forward to:

"We have Engelholm and Örebro this upcoming week. These matches are perfect for us to have just before the playoffs starts. [Once playoffs begin] you never know what can happen. If the whole team has a good day, we can beat anyone."

Gislaved's coach Dick Runesson was not entirely happy after the game and agreed that GVK didn't measure up: "You hit the nail on the head," said Dick.

And continues: "We do not do an extremely poor match. We had too many times we gave up simple mistakes while Katrineholm was incredibly stable. Therein lies the difference for us to be able to keep it a really tight match. I had hoped for at least one set win. At the same time, we must be humble. We have already secured the playoffs with five rounds remaining [in the series]. If someone told me that before the season, I would have called that person an idiot. Now we can build up for the playoffs without pressure or stress, so we'll see how far we can go."

IMPACT PLAYERS//GISLAVED: Lauren Rafdal (12 kills), Lisa Tannerfalk (5 kills, 3 blocks, 1 ace), Amanda Länkinen (libero) MVP
IMPACT PLAYERS//KATRINEHOLM: Taru Ahlo (7 kills, 2 aces, 1 block), Agne Daunyte (9 kills), Aida Rejzovic (6 kills, 3 blocks), Agne Zakarauskaite-Landin (setter) MVP