Marathon cup win for mens’ team

05 November v Su Ragazzi ll

Men v Su Ragazzi ll

Dundee’s mens team scored an excellent 3/2 win over perennial rivals, Su Ragazzi ll, in round 2 of the Scottish Cup.  With several starters missing the Dundee side travelled west with hope and some momentum from their win in the league least weekend.  Ragazzi also had player problems but were compensated by the inclusion of 2 foreign students in their line-up.  The home side started well and found the visitors hesitant and lacking in control and power.  Ragazzi were the better side but found themselves down 16/17 as they inexplicably gifted the Dundee side 10 of their 17 points in errors!  A counter attack and 2 scoring blocks from the Dundee attack gave them the lead they needed and they closed out the set 25/19.  The home side turned the screw and took an 8/1 lead in the second with some good power hits especially form Greek import Michaels who was their main points scorer.  The Dundee side kept working hard and the errors came back into the home side’s play and the gap narrowed to 17/13 for Ragazzi with Louis Groshenry and Colin McEvoy scoring 4 points and Ragazzi gifting 9 points with errors.  Dundee pushed ahead and when Dave Bonnar and Colin McEvoy combined well to score the last 2 points it was the visitors who won the set 25/23.

The home side re-grouped and forged a decent lead in the third set at 15/10 and despite both sides trading points with Groshenry, McEvoy and Lewis Crockart scoring well it was Ragazzi who took the third set 25/19.  Up stepped Leo Maugeri who won 6 points from his service with 3 ‘aces’ and the team scoring 3 on counter attack.  The 7/2 lead was held until the home side pulled ahead at 21/18.

Captain Barry Millar helped pull the sides closer with a run of clever serves that gave 4 points to the Dundee side to lead 23/21.  Back came Ragazzi to level at 23/23.  Dundee held set points at 24/23, Ragazzi held match point at 26/25, the Louis Groshenry hit top form to win 2 points to take the set 28/26 to force a tie-break set.

Both sides scored runs of points and the scores were tied at 9/9.  Groshenry and Petr Kolomaznic  scored 8 points between them to lead 12/11. A serve ace from Lewis Crockart and an error with a hit over the base line gave the Dundee side a hard earned win.