When the home crowd stands and cheers despite their team losing, then it must have been a special evening. The evening on Monday in Munich’s BMW Park lasted exactly 121 minutes, just playing time, mind you. And it almost ended with a first for Herrsching’s volleyball players: They forced the Berlin Recycling Volleys, the dominant team of previous years, into the fifth set; For the first league win ever against the German champions, they were only a few points short of 2:3 (19:25, 25;22, 16:25, 25:17, 12:15).
Herrsching’s fantastic fighting performance was worth it for the standings anyway, they get one point for making it to the tiebreak. And even though Leonard Graven, the libero of the WWK Volleys, pulled his jersey over his head in anger after Berlin’s converted match point and wanted to tear it up before he hit the advertising board, it was the words of Herrsching’s managing director Max Hauser that stuck : “The atmosphere was abnormal,” said Hauser. The game actually deserved more than the 1,200 spectators that the Volleyball Bundesliga later reported in its statistics.
The Herrschingers had quickly declared their home stadium a crime scene before kick-off. In any case, a small video showed the King of Ammersee in his red robe in front of the gates of the BMW Park, investigating a “murder”. The corpse: a rather flat volleyball, respectfully covered by a blue cloth. The killer: a dumpster that drove recklessly over the ball. A reference to the waste disposal company that has sponsored the Berlin Volleys for many years. “Make jokes about the garbage disposal, we couldn’t think of anything better,” said the king, alias DJ and mood maker Alexander Tropschug. In fact, this has already been seen in a modified form, during games against Berlin in the Herrschinger Nikolaushalle. At that time he climbed out of a garbage can to greet his subjects.
The volleys, who came with the German national players Ruben Schott, Tobias Krick and Johannes Tille, endured the slapstick interlude – and won the first set with some confidence thanks to their better serves. Setter Tille played a leading role in this phase: The former Herrschinger, who moved to Berlin via the second French league, has since become the undisputed regular setter there and led the German men to Olympic qualification at the beginning of October, built Berlin’s lead with a series of serves three aces to make it 21:16. His brother Ferdinand, Herrsching’s long-time libero, who ended his professional career before this season, may have secretly applauded him a little in the stands. In any case, neither Tille’s successor Graven nor Ryan Manoogian, the almost deaf second Herrschinger libero, who was on the field for a long time for the first time, were able to slow down Berlin’s force on the field.
Herrsching’s coach Ranner is getting married in Braunschweig on Friday, while the team is training
But anyone who thought it would be a cozy evening for Berlin was mistaken. Rather, the Herrschingers maintained their strong attack rate – and they got better and better in blocking and field defense and kept the game balanced. The guests, on the other hand, made slapstick mistakes: the experienced diagonal man Marek Sotola jumped under a pass from Schott without touching the ball; a Berlin attack landed on the antenna. After a block and an ace from Herrschinger, the score was 22:19 for coach Thomas Ranner’s team.
A little later there was a scene that his counterpart, Joel Banks, will probably remember for a long time. Berlin’s new coach changed setter Tille for a diagonal player, but had not taken into account that this would be his sixth and last possible change in this set – the Berliners now had to end it without Tille, who should have been substituted on again after the tactical measure. Long discussions followed, Berlin seemed dismayed – and lost the set 22:25. “I can’t remember anything like this ever happening before. This will haunt him for a while,” Ranner said to his colleague.
In the third set Berlin showed its better side again, in the fourth set the favorite was already close to victory with a score of 16:13. But then came the next highlight of the evening: his name was Filip John. Herrsching’s diagonal attacker, the later MVP, stepped up to serve, John of all people, who later said that he “wasn’t in a good mental mood” because he had previously been weak in the attack. Then he made the first serve: period. The second: period. The third: period. The fourth: period. The fifth: ace. The sixth: point. The seventh: Ace – on the back of Schott. So this incredible series continued, Herrsching scored eleven points in a row until the score was 24:16. Against Berlin! And like Berlin’s substitution mistake, for Ranner it was something “that I haven’t seen before in men’s volleyball.” Herrsching suddenly had eight set balls – and immediately converted the second. But it wasn’t quite enough to win.
The Berlin entourage probably returned to the capital on Tuesday morning somewhat exhausted, and not just because of the nighttime bus ride. But the Herrschingers went home feeling full of spirit, despite losing the tiebreak. And knowing that it was far from a perfect game. “We are systematically still at the beginning,” said coach Ranner.
On Tuesday they set off towards Schüttorf, in the far north; the second division team will welcome them on Wednesday for the cup round of 16. It’s just the start of three away games in a row, followed by league games in Giesen and Königs Wusterhausen. The Herrschingers have now been on the road for a week without returning home. And for Ranner, the next, very personal highlight follows: his own wedding on Friday in Braunschweig. He scheduled training for the team during the champagne reception – so that they wouldn’t get any stupid ideas.
