Lenzie V Su 2

This Saturday was the 21st day of the month of October. Su Ragazzi had 3 teams, playing 6 v 6 volleyball in 4 matches, spread across 3 different venues, losing 1 and winning 3.

1st up were the girls from Su 2 who lost a terrific encounter with Caledonia West 2-3. Then came the men from City of Glasgow Ragazzi who gave newly promoted NUVOC a bit of a hammering,winning 3 – 0 with set scores of 16, 15, and 13 (ouch!)

Then the girls played their 2nd match of the day beating Dundee 3 sets to 1, which just left the boys of Su 2 trying to finish off the sequence with a positive result by beating Lenzie.

Matches between the two teams are always intense affairs. The good-natured rivalry stretches back years. Points are fiercely contested, sets are strongly fought over, and match results are treasured. On this 21st day of the October month the visitors emerged winners by 3 sets to 1 to claim the league points and the bragging rights.

Set 1 the home side served tough and won 25-22. Set 2 the visitors regrouped and came from behind to win 25-23. Set 3 the team from Glasgow were always in front and won 25-22 to set up the 4th and potentially match winning set.

In this set the teams traded points evenly until the visitors reached 15 points, then a run of tough serves created a 6 point lead, and it was understandable that they thought the 21-14 score line meant it was all over, except no-one told Lenzie’s setter Mark Hudson, or their off-setter Kevin Curran that they were supposed to lose. The 2 of them demanded that their side was not beaten, they cajoled their teammates into more efforts. They won a series of points and almost threatened to pull out this day’s version of the great escape until Andy MgGregor thumped an unstoppable hit down the line to clinch match point with a 25-22.

The astonishing part of the story was the contributions made by Ragazzi’s number 11 – 31 points scored in attack with a 60% kill rate, and Ragazzi’s number 5 – 9 scoring hits with a 70% kill rate and 6 scoring blocks thrown in for good measure.

If ever a team needed a captain’s performance today was the day for Su Captain Gordie McGilivary (number 11) to step up…..and he did! And if ever there was an opportunity for Calum Johnson (number 5) to demonstrate his vast range of experience this day was it…..and he did!

Ably supported by their teammates these 2 heroes steered the men 2’s performance into the win zone.

So, played 4 and won 3 are good numbers, and sometimes that’s enough. Next week City of Edinburgh come calling……bring it on!