It turns out that Yves Charbonneau, who was taken to the hospital earlier in the day, wasn’t the only Bermuda men’s volleyball player to run out of gas.Last night, at Berkeley Institute, a weary Bermuda squad survived a scare against an experienced and cohesive Gotland team before prevailing 3-1 (18-25, 27-25, 25-18, 25-22).“If it had gone to a fifth set, they would have had us,” said winning captain Mike Gazzard. “We were out of gas after playing two five-set matches on Monday. Fatigue set in and we were lucky to make it through. We needed a couple of heroes. Daniel Fiddick was fantastic and another young player, Ian Bucci, also played well.”Men’s volleyball medals will be determined solely on the basis of round-robin play.Aland and Saaremaa top the round robin standings, each with records of 3-0. Bermuda are next at 2-2, while the Faroe Islands sit at 2-1, Greenland are 1-3, Gotland are 1-2 and Guernsey are winless in four attempts.Bermuda take on Guernsey today at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Institute. The squad enjoy a rest day on Thursday before completing the Games with a 9 a.m. match against Greenland on Friday at CedarBridge Academy.The Faroe Islands play Aland on Wednesday, and must face Gotland on Thursday, and Saaremaa on Friday.Gotland captain Per Wallstedt, 36, leads an experienced crew that plays together in Sweden’s second division volleyball set-up. Located in the Baltic Sea, the Gotland squad travels to Stockholm to play a regular league schedule.Most players are in Wallstedt’s age range, while 52-year-old Jan Wahlen, whose daughter Sofia teams with Jenny Sander to represent Gotland in the women’s beach volleyball event, supplies some extra guile.“Many of us played youth volleyball in Gotland 22 years ago, and have played together ever since,” Wallstedt said. “We have been playing in the Island Games together for 10 years. We are not only team-mates, we are best friends and socialise away from the court. My team-mates are the best friends I have, and I hope they would say the same.”“This is probably one of the last Island Games for some of the guys,” added coach Johan Palmqvist. “Bermuda has always traveled to our side of the Atlantic for the Island Games, so we knew that we had to come here. We have been looking forward to this trip for five years.”Bermuda’s women took care of business, too, sweeping the Cayman Islands 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-22) in Group A play.Saaremaa leads the group with a 3-0 record, while Bermuda sits at 2-1, Cayman has a 1-1 record and Gotland and Hitra each have 0-2 records.The Faroe Islands have won Group B with a 3-0 record, while Greenland (2-1), Aland (1-2) and Guernsey (0-3) finished second through fourth, respectively.Crossover semi-finals will see the two group winners take on the second-placed teams in the other groups.Should Bermuda beat Gotland Wednesday at 8.15 p.m. at Berkeley Institute, the Cayman Islands would have to beat both Saaremaa and Hitra to match Bermuda’s 3-1 record. Cayman plays both matches on Wednesday.“We will approach Gotland the same way as we approached Cayman,” said Bermuda coach Juanita Blee. “We’ve got to play our game, which is based on communication, a fast-paced offence, and good passing. Those are the things we need to improve on. We are one game away from playing for a medal, so let’s focus on a game at a time, a point at a time and play ball.”In men’s beach volleyball play yesterday, the Bermuda II team of Sebastian Iaxx and Wesley Toavs were beaten 2-0 (21-9, 21-11) by second-seeded Menorca in quarter-final action. Menorca’s record improved to 4-0, while Bermuda II’s dropped to 1-4.The Bermuda I team of Yves Charbonneau and David Gazzard forfeited their quarter-final match against the Cayman Islands I team of Shervin Rankin and Richard Campbell when Charbonneau’s health issues meant that he could not play (see related story).