It’s been a busy season for Scotland’s young senior women starting with matches last September against top English senior side Leeds , the West of Scotland played the East of Scotland at the Kelvin Hall at Xmas and on that same weekend and venue a younger repres
entative side played the North of England, in April the Scotland under 20’s played against the Scottish Uni’s and Senior Scotland in a triangular tournament in Dundee and at Easter two Scotland under 20 sides competed against top continental junior club sides at the Gooik tournament in Brussels.
The season is not over quite yet though. Indeed it arguably reaches it’s peak this weekend when the Scotland under 20 women take on their English counterparts in a double header at Sheffield. The matches have generously been arranged by the English Volleyball Association and the British Volleyball Federation as warm up games prior to the GB men’s matches against Croatia in the European League and the Scottish Volleyball Association are delighted that their under 20 women have been offered this opportunity.
Unfortunately it is exam time in Scotland and not all the players who would have been considered for selection were able to put themselves forward for potential selection but we are still taking a strong team down to the English Institute of Sport to take on our historic adversaries.
The squad is
Eilidh Anderson ( City of Edinburgh)
Nicola McKenzie ( Dundee)
Beth Parker ( South Ayrshire)
Kirsty McLean ( South Ayrshire)
Caitlin McEwan ( North Lanarkshire)
Emma Clarkson ( Su Ragazzi)
Alex Dickenson ( Su Ragazzi)
Kay Wheatley ( Troon)
Hannah Grant ( Troon)
Claire Ramage ( Troon )
Jenny Jones ( Troon)
Steph McCall ( Troon )
Hazel Gow ( Troon)
All but Gow gained invaluable experience on the trip to Belgium, but Hazel is almost a veteran at this age group and has already played for Senior Scotland on a considerable number of occasions. Jones, Wheatley, Grant and McLean have all worn a senior Scotland jersey in the recent past.
It will be very interesting to find out where our Scottish Young Women stand in relation to our near neighbours. We will discover this at the weekend. Matches start at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Margaret Ann Fleming, CEO of Scottish Volleyball said ” this is a fantastic opportunity for our young senior women to be part of a GB European league Event. The SVA would like to thank British Volleyball for the invitation and as I shall be attending I am very much looking forward to this weekend’s Scotland v England ‘tussle’ in preparation for next years 2012 Olympic Games”
Vince Krawczyk
Head Coach
