Su Ragazzi Volleyball Club
On this first day of the new season the venues for the matches featuring Su Ragazzi teams were spread across Scotland, from Newton Mearns in the West to Liberton High School in the East. The opposition included Volleyball Aberdeen from the North, and South Ayrshire from the South. The results however were all the same…….Su Ragazzi played 6 matches, and won them all!
Coatbridge High School saw the pick of the day when Su II women played the University of Dundee in the first round of the Scottish Cup, and if this is the standard of competition that the new season offers then count me in! It was a ding-dong crescendo of an encounter with both teams giving everything they had to secure the win.
Set one we roared out of the starting blocks and established a seemingly unbeatable lead that wasn’t. When they were 19-14 down the Dundee side looked out of it, then when they scored their 25th point they jumped about and celebrated. We then went to sleep in set two and watched it follow the same score-line as set one.
Set 3 it was time to roll up the sleeves, knuckle down, and focus. We did, and the game momentum swung in our favour. We worked the rallies, combining tactical smarts with power serving. We established a pattern of scoring mini-clusters of points and kept our errors to a minimum. We moved people about and presented a variety of different problems to the girls from Dundee, and we took the set to open the door to the desired win.
Set four we had the momentum from the start. Set four we played with enthusiasm and a smile. Set four we controlled the ball, then the competition and secured the win.
In the between-sets huddle there were only positive comments, and eager anticipation of the victory which surely had to come…….provided we worked for it. We did! We reached the eight point mark with a one point lead; we reached the ten point mark with a three point lead; we reached the 15 point mark with four point lead and it was all over!
It was a terrific win for Kelsie Braidwood and her team, thoroughly deserved and worked for – well done ladies!
The ‘warm-up-act’ for this pulsating encounter had seen the men of Su II outplay the Seaton Kamakazi team from Aberdeen, winning their one-sided affair 3 sets to zero. The highlight of the match was the return to competitive play of Andy McGregor, who played as if he had never been away.
While this was happening at Coatbridge the men of City of Glasgow Ragazzi were playing and beating host team Glasgow Mets ( 2 sets to zero) and South Ayrshire (2 sets to zero) in Newton Mearns in the John Syer Grand Prix event
Then finally, the Fabulous Suettes rounded up the day with victories against Volleyball Aberdeen (2 sets to zero) and hosts NUVOC (2 sets to zero) in the women’s version of the Grand Prix event at Liberton High School in Edinburgh.
Phew! Take a breath! The new season has only just begun. We are trying to play with more control, with more power, with more speed, and if the day-one results are anything to go by we might be achieving these targets. It’s very early days yet, the season will unquestionably have twists and turns before we reach the end, but on this first day Su Ragazzi Volleyball Club can take a huge amount of confidence from this clean sweep of results.
Well done to all.