A pleasure and a privilege.

The Scottish Cup competition took centre stage on Saturday 3rd December. The girls of Su II were hosting a three team tournament, with Stirling University

and Beacon Phoenix from Aberdeen, and it was both a pleasure and a privilege to spend the day with them.

Game 1 saw the girls from the North East dispatching their University opponents in short time 3 sets to zero. Game 2 saw the home side heroes also dispatch the Stirling Students 3 sets to 0 in quick time. So the success of the day came down to the match between Su II and Phoenix.

Both sides had players who served tough but none more so than Su Captain Lina Leffering who dished up a series of howitzers in every set. Both sides had outside hitters who understood hitting tactics, but none more so that Emilia Marcizewska, and Livia Amzu who kept finding the gaps in the Aberdeen defence.

We had an advantage in that we had two middle attackers in Sam Fowler and Kelsie Braidwood who could both put the ball on the floor, but the match changed when Sam hit a first tempo spike that knocked the Aberdonian Libero off her feet! The two Midde Attackers created chaos in the opposition’s defensive systems, which forced them to give us a series of free balls, which were expertly dealt with by Libero for the day Emi Vulpe, and confidently set by Alice Haynes. This was a real team performance,

The first set of the match established the tone. The team from the North East leapt into a significant lead early in the set, and at 17 – 8 up they thought they had done enough, but the Su Girls were having none of it. Their fight-back was based upon confidence in their ability, and some super tough serving. At 26 – 25 we had a set point, at 28 – 27 we had another which we gleefully took to win the set and the game momentum.

We took the second set to 15 because we were the better team. Set three we led, then reaxed and the girls from the North East roared into the space we had left and won the set 25-22. In the huddle we spoke of focusing, of being consistent, of being confident in our ability, and this was all demonstrated when we won the set and the match 25-14.

At the end of the match the girls all shook hands, said thank you, and reflected on what a great match it had been. The last comment belongs to one of our loyal band of supporters who commentated……”It was so nice to see the girls playing with a smile on their faces”.

Meanwhile, the Su II men were winning 3 sets to zero against Edinburgh Jets II, while the Fabulous Suettes were winning 2 sets to zero in both the matches they played in the John Syer Cup…..the only fly in the ointment was the City boys losing a tense thriller third set against Glasgow Mets.

So seven matches played, six matches won, all teams qualifying for the next stage of the Cup Competitions…..let the good times roll on, and a huge ‘thank you’ to the girls of Su Ragazzi II for a most enjoyable day.