Big Weekend of Discovery (part 2)

The Sunday of the big weekend in Dundee took place over 4 sports halls with 7 volleyball courts in action at the one time. 

Four courts at the ISE, University of Dundee, hosting the Scottish Volleyball District Cup. The competition, now in its fourth year, received a record number of entries into the competition. 14 district teams from all over the country looked to take the opportunity to compete against new teams, in an exciting format with lots of games and opportunities for game play throughout the day. 

Three courts at the Lynch Centre, Dundee, hosted the U18 Junior Super Cup tournament. The competition is also in its fourth year, with a record number of entries and each team looking to join the 8 teams already qualified for the COCO5 Finals weekend. 

The top two male teams and the top two female teams would qualify for the U18 finals. 

Team Aberdeen would make their debut in junior competition in the boys draw and they ran Perth & Kinross close in the quarter-final match, with the deciding set finishing 15-13. It was a great encouragement for the junior games, with two new teams for 2015-2016 competing to such a high level. 

Another match that was decided by the same score line in the deciding set was the seeding match between South Ayrshire and City of Edinburgh. Both teams would go on to win their semi-final against Perth & Kinross and Cavalry Park NUVOC, so it is all set to be a memorable final come 17th April 2016. 

In the girls competition it was clear to see the huge strides taken by Cavalry Park NUVOC, as they went toe-to-toe with play-off teams Marr College. Meanwhile, Su Ragazzi in their pool overcome South Ayrshir, who took a set off Ragazzi. It was Marr College who secured a fourth straight final after topping their pool. 

In the other Pool City of Edinburgh B and Marr College B put in credible performances against the more experienced Aberdeen Grammar and City of Edinburgh A squads. It was the now regular match between City of Edinburgh and Aberdeen Grammar for a place in the final that resulted in the most amount of drama in the day. The capital side edged the first set in a tense encounter 26-24, with Rachel Ferguson serving the final two points to get over the line. The second set saw a magnificent coming together of power hitting and quick middle attacking from the Granite City outfit with Kirsty Manclark and Shona Fraser scoring efficiently as Aberdeen took the 2nd set 25-16. 

The tie-break was nip and tuck to the turn before some strong a run of four serves from Anna Crawford took Edinburgh to the final as they closed out the tie-break 15-11. 

Back at the University, the district cup saw the tournament split into three separate placing competitions; the District Cup, District Plate & the District Spoon. Scotstoun overcame Arbroath in the final to retain the district cup with last year’s semi-finalist Livingston Lizards taking 3rd place overcoming Dundee University at their home venue. 

A massive thank you to Dundee University, ISE, Paul McPate and all who helped over the course of the weekend with 47 teams, 79 matches over 2 days in 1 city.