Reigning Swedish champions Hylte Halmstad entered the Swedish Championship final in men's volleyball as big favorites with 27 straight victories in the training trunk.

On the other side of the net: Habo Wolley – a team with the majority of high school students led by playing coach Andrew McWilliam, one of three senior players in Habo from Canada.

"We've believed in this ever since we went into the playoffs. We are not just here to participate. We are here to take over. That is our mentality. It's always fun to show people they've been wrong. But nothing is clear yet. We still have a job to do," McWilliam told SVT.

First final

Habo is located just north of Jönköping. The small town's (just under 9,000 inhabitants) volleyball team has never been to the Swedish Championship final before. Now they have won the first two final games and can decide the series away from home in Halmstad on Saturday. Hylte Halmstad has won the last two Swedish Championship finals and is second best of all time on the men's side with ten Swedish Championship golds (Lidingö SK has 16 titles).

19-year-old Habo player Carl Larsson is one of the players in Habo who is in his final year of high school.

"I'm from a club where we won all kinds of things in our youth. And this winning mentality has probably carried over into the first team now and is in all the young players I would say. To then top it off with a couple of awesome Canadians, it will be a good recipe for a good team, says Carl Larsson.

Gold hats and student caps

Soon the student is waiting for large parts of Habo Wolley, but before the student caps go on, there may be a party in gold hats if you win the third final in Halmstad on Saturday.

"My goal has always been to win a Swedish Championship with Habo together with my teammates from my youth. I've written it on every goal we do here at school. It's always been a dream, so of course it's fun to see it about to be fulfilled, hopefully," says Carl Larsson.

Game three of the Swedish Championship final in best of five games will be played in Halmstad Arena on Saturday 22 April at 15.00.