Scattered Across Scotland

The Quarter Final Ties….

On Cup quarter finals Saturday the teams from Su Ragazzi VC were scattered all over Scotland.

The City of Glasgow Ragazzi men were furthest afield, having the long journey North to Aberdeen. Their hosts were Beacon Flame, who have had a torrid season in the first division. The visitors won 3 – 0 in fairly quick time, and journeyed back South looking forward to the semi-final draw.

Meanwhile the Baby Suettes also journeyed North, but stopped off in Dundee for their match. The Glasgow side won 3 – 0 continuing their hugely successful season.

Meanwhile, the boys for the Su II team had a tough draw against South Ayrshire II. They went South to Prestwick Academy, and had to work extremely hard to see off a spirited home side and record a 3 – 1 victory…….cup quarter final Saturday was working out well….so far…..

The last tie of the day was the Fabulous Suettes V City of Edinburgh. The home tie for the Glasgow side was played at Brannock High School. With all of the other sides playing away the Suettes paired up with Bellshill Cardinals at their home venue, to provide the required officials. The first set was nip and tuck. The Edinburgh side are Champions and play tough! Matches between the two sides this season have all been tough, have had some fantastic rallies, and this one was no different. The two sides traded serves, and hits and at 23-22 the set was there to be won for both teams – Jillian Galloway served two ‘bombs’ and it was done in favor of the home side.

Set 2 Edinburgh regrouped. They worked harder at both serving and hitting. The Glasgow side was less effective than they had been, and the set passed to the team from the East Coast fairly quickly.

Set three , and probably the match was decided by a couple of key plays at the very end of the set. The Suettes were 20-24 down when Mhairi Agnew went back to serve. She served tough and ripped up the Edinburgh passing unit, and the score inched forward. There was a real sense of tension at 23-24 but Mhairi served and scored again and the set was tied at 24 each. The Suettes had a transition swing on the outside to go in front, and didn’t take it. Then they had a second swing on the outside in transition to go in front and didn’t take it, and the set petered out 26 – 28 on an error. Not a great return for all of the work and effort being put into the competition.

Set 4 was the poorest of the match. They served well, we didn’t pass well, and it was done fairly quickly. Edinburgh won the match, because their outside hitters did a better job of attacking. Both teams beat up on each other in the serve pass battle, but their outside hitters had a better understanding of the importance of attacking when doing their job! The home side played well in parts, had some decent performances, had players who worked their socks off for the whole match, but finally didn’t have enough to win. Tough day at the Office!

So, for three of out four of the Ragazzi sides they get to look forward to the semi final draws…..and for the Suettes – get tougher!