GVK Knocked Out in Quarterfinals

GVK players celebrate a kill by Carlsson (10)

GVK needed a win to stay alive in the SM-quarterfinals. Engelholm won 3-0 and took home the quarterfinal series 3-0, ending Gislaved's season.

FINAL SCORE: Engelholm 3 - Gislaved 0 (25-17, 26-24, 25-12)

In the third set, GVK fought but nothing went their way. Par on course, Engelholm won the match ball due to a GVK player was on the net.

Sanna Schultz led GVK with 10 points

It also means that Engelholm advance to the semifinals with three straight 3-0 wins against GVK.

"It feels tough to end [the season] like this. Everyone wants to perform as well as possible, but I do not think we did that today. We can do better," says Sanna Schultz.

But Gislaved gave league-favorite Engelholm a run for their money.

In the first set, the teams played even to 13-13, then EVS took control.

Good second set
With luck, GVK could have won the second set. But again it was a home team win, 26-24.

"We played well at times, but we are a bit too much up and down in our game. We are amazingly good when we are good, but then bottom out."

What is that?

"If I knew, the match maybe wouldn't have ended this way," says Schultz.

Yes, up and down it was.

After a great second set, everything crumbled for GVK. Engelholm cruised to a 25-12 victory.

"I do not really know what happened. It feels a bit like the air went out of us after the second set."

Lauren Rafdal (3) and Jollan Åkerlund (7) block against EVS

Would you say that it is an acceptable effort for the team to go out with 0-3 in games against Engelholm?

"We should certainly have given them a better match and maybe win a few more sets."

Did you enter the quarterfinals thinking that you might upset Engelholm?

"Definitely! We have won sets against them before and shown that we can challenge them. But it requires that all our players are at their absolute peak at the same time," says Schultz.

With the loss, GVK ends their 2014/15 season

IMPACT PLAYERS//GISLAVED Sanna Schultz 10 points (7 kills, 2 aces, 1 block), MVP Lauren Rafdal 9 points (7 kills, 2 blocks)

IMPACT PLAYERS//ENGELHOLM Isabelle Haak 17 points (14 kills, 2 blocks, 1 ace), MVP Jen Cross 15 points (11 kills, 3 blocks, 1 ace), Anna Haak 13 points (13 kills), Sophie Wallner 11 points (7 kills, 3 aces, 1 block)