Double dream evaporates with early injury
Dundee’s ladies dream of a league and cup double evaporated early in their Scottish Plate final in Edinburgh last weekend. The first game in Scottish Volleyball’s Cup Final weekend saw Dundee take on Premier League, Glasgow International, early on Saturday morning. Dundee opened up with a run of 4 points with 2 serve ‘aces’ from Emma Clarkson and 2 unforced errors from the GI attack. Dundee added a point from Hannah Lawrie to give Dundee a 6/3 lead. The game then turned against Dundee as captain and top right side player, Nicola McKenzie, was injured when she collided under the net with a GI hitter. The ankle injury forced her to leave the court and Dundee had to reshuffle their team. The Glasgow side changed their focus and took the lead at 12/10. Dundee’s response was to score through Laura Ward and Sarah Driscoll, who both added points to give Dundee a 16/14 lead. Katie Stewart added a point and Emma Clarkson scored another service ‘ace’ as Dundee led 18/17. The Glasgow side then became very untidy and handed Dundee 4 points in unforced errors as they tried to exert some power at the net. Hannah Lawrie and Laura Ward took the score to 24/19 and a service error gave Dundee the set 25/19.
Dundee’s reshuffled attack continued to thrive in the second set as Sarah Driscoll and Hannah Lawrie helped Dundee to a 14/9 lead. Glasgow International hauled themselves back into the game and trailed 14/17. Their right side hitter then forced Dundee into retreat as they powered a run of 7 points without reply to move to lead 22/17. Glasgow International saw out the set comfortably, winning 25/18.
The premier side then turned the screw as their experience told with runs of points from heavy serves and dogged defence turned into powerful counter attacks. GI moved to 16/9 and despite scores from Ward, Driscoll, and Lawrie the score moved to 25/17 in the Glasgow side’s favour.
There was no fairy-tale fightback as GI dominated the fourth set scoring 3 big runs of points despite Dundee’s desperate efforts to stay in the set. It was not to be as the set drifted away 25/10 to give a 3/1 victory to the Glasgow side. The disappointing end to the season did not take the shine of the league win and promotion to the Premier League.