Epic Two and Half-Hour Battle Smashes Winning Run
Dundee’s ladies’ team hosted Edinburgh University ll in National League l in Craigie High School. The students arrived, sitting top of the league, with an 8/0 win record and started the brighter side and took a 12/9 lead with the home side struggling to score points and relying on errors from the students. Clever serving started to cause problems for the students and the errors mounted up and with Natalie Stopowska scoring for Dundee it was the home side that sneaked into a 21/19 lead. The University side responded with a run of 5 points and took the set 25/22. Dundee started the second set with Sacha Tissot and Carol Lane scoring to help take a 13/10 lead. Lucy Wishart then added points and the home side took the set 25/22.
A 6/1 lead for the Edinburgh side in the third set looked ominous for the Dundee side but scores from Claire Pollock and Pauletta Talmon kept them in touch and then Stopowska scored 4 points to give her side a 20/18 lead. A repeat of the first set then followed as a run of 5 points without reply helped the Students take the set 25/21. The fourth set started with Dundee in control, leading 6/2 but the students piled on the pressure and looked comfortable at 16/12. An error gave Dundee the service and Agnes Bednarek scored 2 ‘aces’ and then 4 points in counter-attack had them leading 19/16. Natalie Stopowska and Lucy Wishart both scored to lead 25/24 with Agnes Bednarek hitting the winning point to level the game winning 26/24.
The fifth tie-break set was all Dundee as they had an 8/4 lead with 3 points from Sacha Tissot and 3 from Stopowska. There was then a dispute about the score as the students came back and had a 13/12 lead. Carol Lane levelled with a service point and both sides scored points to tie at 16/16. Dundee then scored the last 2 points from Lucy Wishart to win 18/16 to inflict a first defeat on the University side.
(Game date 02/02/2019)