Men’s Scottish Cup Final

Alan Krawczyk celebratesAs with all finals, NUVOC and glasgow Mets started off attempting to dominate the other with power and aggression. The Mets held their nerve to consistently score thanks largely to the pinpoint setting of Alan Krawczyk and the power hitting of Edward Gorecki to go to the first technical time-out with a 8-3 lead. Basic defensive errors cost NUVOC as they struggled to adjust to the pace of first division volleyball after a year in the second tier for most of these former Jets players.

The adjustment was made and NUVOC found their feet on the back of the blocking power of Glissov, Bah and Krakowski. When on the net, these players allowed setter Martyn Johnston to dictate play as Nuvoc clawed back to lead 16 – 15 at the second technical. The game went up-tempo after this and once again the lack of matchplay at this level by NUVOC showed. Defensively they were being caught out of position and making errors that let Glasgow extent out to a 5 point lead. Excellent re-organisation saw NUVOC back to within a point but Glasgow Mets held on to win the first 25-23.

Paul GlissovNUVOC lifted a gear at the start of the second set and despite a hand injury to Paul Glissov, started find their rang in attack as Glasgow just relaxed slightly. Nuvoc went to the firs technical time out at 8 – 5 on the back of some good strong hitting and nice variations on higher balls at varying distances from the net. Glasgow’s Gorecki and Krawczyk continued to connect well and some dominant hitting saw Mets storm back into the set to lead 16 – 12 at the second technical. MacLeod, McFarlan and Bunnefeld exerted much more influence on the game and the imbalance of the NUVOC line up was exploited to the max. A comedy of errors ensued interspersed with some brilliant play. Eventually Krakowski served wide to gift Mets the second set 25 – 23.

The third set was all Mets to lose. They went out to a 6 – 2 lead with Nuvoc looking like the lacked belief in the job in front of them. A string of unforced errors from Mets let Nuvoc back into the set and they took an 8 – 7 led into the first technical time out. Mets soon corrected their attitude and with steady leadership on court took a 16 – 12 break at the second technical time out. Nvoc looked tired and out of ideas at this point. Mets won the third set 25 – 17.

Glasgow Mets went on to win this match and the Scottish Cup for 2015 3 – 0. It looked easy but Nuvoc did enough to suggest that they will be back next season with a force to be reckoned with.