Haasrode Leuven builds up confidence in Antwerp for European adventure: “Let Benfica come” (Leuven)

After three grueling five-setters in a row, Haasrode Leuven finally managed to book an easy victory. VHL hardly had any trouble against PhD candidate Antwerp on Saturday evening and closed the match in record time with an easy 0-3 win. With Wednesday’s important European home match against Benfica Lisbon looming, that was exactly what the people of Leuven needed.

Coach Hendrik Tuerlinckx threw two new names into the starting lineup on a visit to Antwerp: no Ryan Poole at the corner (slight hamstring discomfort) and Laszlo De Paepe in the middle, but with Ward Van Dyck and Daan De Saedeleer respectively. In any case, VHL did not need a run-up, because in no time the score was 11-25 and the way to an easy victory seemed prepared.

Van Dyck to the side

After such a dominant opener, it is important to stay on task and the Leuven team did that. With almost flawless play it went from 3-8 to 12-21 and 15-25, the defeat for Antwerp was almost complete. The only downside: after an unfortunate phase, Ward Van Dyck landed on Daan De Saedeleer’s foot and had to be sidelined with a damaged ankle, although the damage initially seemed to be not too bad.

“In the third set they provided more resistance, but in the end I always had the feeling that we were easily controlling,” said setter Matthias Valkiers, who is growing into his best form and helped direct VHL to 20-25. Result: a very easy victory in just one hour and eight minutes of play. “I started this season with a good feeling. Since last year I have started to focus more on strength to tackle my recurring back problems. I am now starting to reap the benefits of that. The task was to get the three points without wasting much energy and we succeeded with flying colors. After three five-setters, it’s nice to be fast for once. Look, without saying anything bad about Antwerp, we knew they weren’t that strong. It is certainly an added value that the competition finally has ten teams again and hopefully even twelve in the future. What have we learned from this match? That we hardly made any mistakes (seven in total, ed.) and that we have shown maturity. We let them make the mistakes.”

No real test

Although the match against Antwerp was not a real test, it did provide exactly what Haasrode Leuven needed: no significant physical effort and the opportunity to fully focus on the European campaign. “Everyone is ready for Benfica, be sure of that,” concludes Valkiers. “It will be a tough one, because the Portuguese have a physically strong team and are often customers in the Champions League, but we certainly want to show ourselves.”