The Boys festival was going to be a very busy day of volleyball. The festival was almost at capacity with all three courts in action. There were 12 team in all entered for the day all looking to win the Mark McGivern National festival. The tournament had a few new schools entered for their first experience of festival volleyball. The format as always would be pools play with the top 4 teams going forward to play for the trophy. This year’s new schools included teams form Dalziel High school, Eastbank Academy and Girvan Academy.
Once the teams arrived and a short briefing the games got underway. Belmont academy came to the day as defending champions. However things didn’t go all their own way as Queen Margaret Academy managed to beat the favourites in a very close match in the morning. This was a sign of things to come as a flurry of unexpected results flooded in to the score table. This would mean that a few schools would have a very nervous wait to see if they had made it into the top 4 for the afternoon.
The level of play in the morning as fantastic and had influenced the outcome of the top pool significantly. Again it was the South Ayrshire schools that were making waves at the Festival. Belmont A had done enough to make it in to the afternoon top pool. Queen Margaret B had made it in to the top pool on point’s difference and Girvan Academy had two teams make the top pool!
Once lunch was finished, the afternoons play got underway. The intensity in the
gym had gone way up. The boys were showing great team play, devastating attacks and some unreal defence. The opening Game in the top pool was Girvan A against Belmont A. What a game. Both sides fought point for point and no one team could pull away. Eventfully the timer ran out and Belmont had won the game by a single point. As the afternoon went on the play continued at a tremendous pace. The atmosphere was electric.
Again a few surprise results came in and schools had really played to their potential and made every match highly competitive. At the end of the afternoon’s pool play Belmont A came out on top. They had managed to battle their way through the days play and emerged as champions. Queen Margaret Academy had a fantastic day and finished as runners up, with Girvan A and C pushing them all the way.