Semi finals

So playoffs eh!?! Do playoffs in denmark draw any more of a crowd than in league games?? Somehow i doubt it for the semi's... the finals must be able to draw a decent crowd though. Whatever.

So we match up with Aalborg on one side while Marienlyst and gentofte play in the other semi. Aalborg has given us more trouble than any other team this year so it should be interesting. I am 100% confident that we will be succesfull if we play well. Having said that, coming out and playing well has been difficult for us as of late. It seems as though we've been playing our last few games being too worried about the consequences of losing. We are not a good enough team to just show up and expect to win...we need to be firing on all cylinder to win against anyone in these playoffs.
As for Marienlyst and Gentofte I think that Marienlyst is going to pull this one out two straight. On the other hand, Gentofte has shown that they can beat Marienlyst, I would not be terribly surprised to see them pull out at least one match in this series.
The way the slutspil finished created interesting matchups. In my opinion, Us and Marienlyst have been the top teams overall for the year. We seem to matchup well against Gentofte, having not lost to them yet this year, while having a tough time with Aalborg, being 2-2 against them overall for the year. Marienlyst has disposed of Aalborg relatively easily all season long (i think), while having difficulty with Gentofte on more than one occasion. If the matchups had been reversed...us vs. Gentofte and Marienlyst vs. Aalborg I would put money on two sweeps. But its not like that at all so I really have no idea what to expect... i really think that anything can happen. Its going to come down to which teams can catch some momentum and run with it.

For all you lazy bastards who didn't bother to solve my puzzle the answer is :
To win a gold medal

Hint #2
i'm pretty sure noone is listnening but just in case, the cypher in the first sentence is the ages of the two players that are referenced. I took their ages out of our program from the first semester so i'm not 100% sure if they are correct. (25 and 28)
thats not really a hint, its more of the solution but whatever.

Hint
In case anyone has tried my riddle. There are references to two players on MVK in the first sentence. These two players can help to give you the cypher to solve the rest of the puzzle.

MVK 1, Aalborg 3

Another disapointing match. We've picked a bad time to be in a rut. I am still confident that we will prevail in the semi's though. Game plan = grip it and rip it.

Riddle number two

This one is the same format as the last:

Why are Funk Master Flex and James Bond in Middelfart?

A time to own is here. I'm not that greedy, people need a momento. Feed the ball!

(i had to use an old program to get some info for this cypher, so its based on info from the first half of the season in 2005....that should be a little bit of a clue)

MVK 0, Marienlyst 3

No comment.

March madness

Anyone looking to enter the ncaa hoops bracket contests this year should join our volley groups and test your luck. Enter the http://contest.blastpromo.com/cgi-bin/sportsnet-hoops06/portfolio.cgi contest and join the group 'volley hoops', password=mikasa. Enter the www.espn.com contest and joing the group 'volleyhoops', no password required.
You need to act fast though the deadline is rapidly approaching. DO IT NOW!!!

MVK 3, Holte 0

Not much to say about this one. Bo was named player of the game, only to have this title quickly removed because he refused to wear the 'player of the game' hat. One word 'weaksauce'.
Props to daniel and the boys in aarhus making a late run at playoffs with a big win today over Gentofte!

Peace

These articles were recommended to me by Jordan. They are emails back and forth between espn writer Bill Simmons and author Malcolm Gladwell. Some pretty interesting conversation if you have some time to check these out.

Part I http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060302
Part II http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060303

Operation win 7 games
Only 3 league games left and maybe only 4 playoff games. 7 matches away from a danish championship!!
Holte next weekend, on paper should be an easy match. Marienlyst after that, should be a big game with both teams fighting for that top spot. Aalborg to finish the season, the only team to beat us in league play. We will be out for revenge in that one. With the way things are going lately I don't even want to try to predict who we will end up playing in the semi's or finals. Frankly I don't care who we play, I am fine with whoever we end up playing. We have to beat them all sometime.

Who's coming to Foreign beer/poker night tonight?? Com nu team Aarhus. I know Funch has plans but what about Hoppe and the Double Agent??
The ban on the community glass is still in effect.

peace out

Answer to my riddle

In case anyone actually tried to solve my puzzle/riddle from way back, here is the solution.
I was going for a 'rule of four' type of solution. The first sentence was meant to give you the cypher to solve the second sentence.

I've felt this way since The Day I Was Born.

The last part is capitalized as a hint. The solution is my birthday, which is september 1st, '81. Which can be written in day/month/year format to give 1/9/81. Or you could have just taken the year I was born which gives the same numers 1981.
So now you take these four numbers to solve the second sentence (1-9-8-1).

In the old days, the jumbo shrimp were named Ned.

You take the 1st letter, then the ninth letter after that, then the eighth letter after that, then the first letter after than, and so on (1-9-8-1-.
You end up with the letters: iambored
Hence the solution to my puzzle : I am bored (which also kind of answers the first sentence in a way)

Awesome eh!

MVK 3, Aarhus 0

Not much to report here. I felt like we were in control the whole match. Even when we were down a couple points in the third, and we were making a few unforced errors I was never worried.

Now we have a massive break. Possibly 6 days without volleyball. It will be a good chance to let my body heal a little. I have so many aches and pains I feel like i'm trapped in the body of a 70 yr old. Hopefully we don't get too rusty over the break.