This Saturday saw two of the Men’s Premier Division teams lock horns in a 
battle to make the top 3 split after Christmas at Prestwick Academy.
South Ayrshire hosted Glasgow Mets not long after losing their long term Libero Liam Fleming to a job in Doha, whereas Glasgow Mets were down 3 of their first team players from the week before due to a variety of reasons.
The away team settled into the match more with the home team’s starting middle Ross McKelvie side-lined due to injury after the warm up. Captain Alan Krawczyk introduced all his hitters into the match allowing them to gain the confidence in their abilities. South competed extremely well throughout the set but didn’t have enough to stop Mets taking the set 25-21 with Ryan Macleod contributing a couple of timely blocks.
A frank discussion at the end of the set with Coach Iain Parker seemed to rejuvenate the squad with a shift of focus towards breaking down the passing unit of Mets with aggressive serving. Euan Duncan served some big jump serves which Mets failed to control giving South some breathing space and maintaining that to the end of the set to win the 2nd set 25-19. Regan Kidd contributed to this score line with a display of big blocking against the Mets offence.
South started the 3rd set strong with good blocking structure making life hard for Mets to score. Both teams started to get a bit sloppy with their ball control which meant the side out efficiency dropped. This allowed Mets to get back into the set with setter Krawczyk linking well with outside spiker Matus Bachan. This wasn’t enough for Mets to take the set with Regan Kidd shutting down Andy Fleming on set point to win 25-22.
In a real sea saw of a set, South established their dominance early on only to find Mets slowly creep back into the set with a change of tempo for middle player Ryan Macleod allowing him to score freely. Mets left side hitters then started to allow hitting errors into their game which allowed South to create a lead and maintain it to win the set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
The match was a real battle but Euan Duncan was a real threat every time he contacted the ball which made him the SVL Player of the Week.
South Ayrshire 3-1 Glasgow Mets (21-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-20)
Next Week’s Game of the Week will see the Women’s Under 18 SVL Junior match between City of Edinburgh A and Aberdeen Grammar A take place at Queensferry High School on Sunday (27/11).
