Lynne Beattie has been given the honour of captaining Great Britain when they have their first match on Scottish soil in this weekend’s European League double-header with Romania in Edinburgh.
Beattie learned her volleyball in Scotland and joined her first club, Glasgow-based Su Ragazzi, as a 15 year-old before making her Scotland debut two years later against England.
It is 18 months since Beattie, 23, last played in her home country and she is desperate to give GB their first win of this European League campaign.
“The last time I played in Scotland was the Christmas before last when I played against England in Glasgow and we beat them for the first time in quite a few years,” she recalls.
“Mind you, the English girls in the GB squad tell me it was an England junior team in that match but that’s not how I remember it!”
Taking matches outside the GB training base in Sheffield is a new diversion as programme organisers hope to showcase the sport in different parts of the UK ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
There will also be matches in Norwich later this month in the European League (both men and women) as GB seeks to spread its fan-base.
Head coach Audrey Cooper, also born and raised in Scotland, is also looking forward to this weekend and is seeking revenge after last weekend’s double defeat by the Romanians in Constanta.
Although the GB team failed to take a set, Cooper took positives out of the two matches.
“There were many positives,” she stressed, “The first match was the best we have started in the European League so far.
“We had a poor start in the second match but we showed mental toughness and resilience as well as starting to run the type of offence we have been working on for the last four months.
“The key to taking sets were aggressive serving and solid-serve receive. There were highs and lows over the two days but encouraging right to the end that we recovered when we had runs of points against us.
“The team are very upbeat for the home leg and are looking forward to playing in Scotland for the first time. We expect the home crowd to get behind us in Edinburgh. “
Roddy Mackenzie
Final Whistle Media
