Big win for Men against Edinburgh ll in Cup round 3

By contrast, the men had a five-set thriller in their third round tie against City of Edinburgh ll in South Queensferry.   Without top hitters, Mike Coward and Colin Mcevoy, it was a different line–up than usual that started the game.  The home side were generous with serving errors and gifted the Dundee side 5 of their first 12 points.  Add in 5 scores from Boris Prodanov and 3 from Oz Dowie and Dundee held a 19/16 lead.  Boris added 3 more scores and Dundee secured the first set 25/23.  Edinburgh opened up an 8/1 lead in the second set  but again Edinburgh’s serving errors gave Dundee a way back into the set and they levelled at 9/9.  Another run of errors helped Dundee draw level at 19/19.  The home side exerted pressure on the Dundee defence and forced a hitting error to steal the set 25/22.

The visiting Dundee side controlled the first part of set 3 and took a 13/9 lead with Rad Marinov and Mark Donnachie scoring well against a weak Edinburgh block.   The home side switched in two servers with immediate effect.  They scored 5 points from their service and took the lead at 18/16.  Oz Dowie scored 2 quick points to win the serve and a Barry Millar ‘ace’ serve gave Dundee set point and Edinburgh obliged with another gift with an error for a 25/23 set win for Dundee.

Teenager Boris Prodanov was Dundee’s main point winner in the fourth set but it was the home side who won runs of points to win the set 25/15 with ease as Dundee faltered in defence.  In the tie break fifth set it was Dundee who controlled the net with Prodanov, Mark Donnachie and Craig Goldthorpe all scoring to change ends with Dundee leading 8/5.  Both sides traded points then another serve error gave Dundee the crucial cushion to lead 13/11.  Boris scored a big hit to secure match point to lead 14/12. He then scored an ‘ace’ serve to win the set 15/12 and the game 3/2.