Die Haghe narrowly won against TOP Arnemuiden on Saturday evening. At first, there seemed to be little going on at home, but after a messy second half it became a real pain in the ass. With a 19-18 victory, the Canaries kept the points in The Hague and remain fully involved in the title battle.
Both teams clearly had to get their act together, because it took quite a while before Sander Snaphaan scored the 1-0. TOP made it 1–1, but then Die Haghe ran away to a five-goal lead. However, at 9-4, the Canaries missed the opportunity to increase the difference to six. That was the moment when TOP smelled opportunities and slowly crept closer, until 10–7 at halftime.
In the second half, TOP continued to push fanatically. Die Haghe became a little too nonchalant, made wrong choices and suffered unnecessary loss of ball. TOP made good use of this and even managed to take a 15-16 lead, mainly through their fast and energetic ladies.
At that moment Tom Snaphaan came on. He brought the necessary sharpness and immediately scored twice to put things in order. After that, both teams continued to take turns scoring and it was so uncertain how it would end that everyone was biting their nails in silence. In the final phase, Sander Snaphaan provided the relief for The Hague side by putting the 19-18 on the scoreboard from a distance. The ball went to the defense a few more times, but in the end Die Haghe played the last attack maturely until the end of the shot clock.
Not a great match, but exciting… and ultimately the win.
Thanks to this narrow victory, Die Haghe remains at the top. No surprises in the rest of the Hoofdklasse B: Nieuwerkerk won against Avanti and is one point ahead at the top, while Valto convincingly dealt with GKV and remains close behind in the title race. TOP Arnemuiden has to take a step back in the rankings due to this defeat.
Standings Hoofdklasse B
After eight rounds, Nieuwerkerk leads the rankings with 15 points, closely followed by Die Haghe with 14. Valto follows with 11 points, while TOP Arnemuiden remains close behind with 10 points. KVA, Sporting Delta and GKV follow in the middle bracket, while Avanti is still waiting for the first points.
In short: the top teams did what they had to do and it remains exciting in the Hoofdklasse B. Next week against KVA! 💛🖤
Editorial: Jonni Abbenhuis
Photo: Richard Split
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