6 finals were all held at Calderhead High School, with schools from Ayrshire to Aberdeen all looking to finish their season with the trophies and titles of being national champions for their age groups.
Olympic Captains Lynne Beattie and Ben Pipes were both there on the day to present the trophies and medals, and to soak up the brilliant atmosphere created by the 80 Calderhead High School 2nd and 3rd year pupils, all the different schools, supporters and teacher who were present.
Men’s captain Ben Pipes said, ‘great to see the Scottish VB schools finals @ Calderhead High School and to see some familiar faces’
The Schools Cup Finals Day started off with the P7/S1 finals, consisting of 3v3 games. In both boys and girls finals, the same schools were represented as Kyle Academy took on Marr College. There were a lot of long rallies and the crowd was very vocal after their warm-up with GB captain Lynne Beattie’s spiking and serving challenge!
The girls final was very tight but just as it was looking like heading to a tie-break, some strong serving from Marr College saw out the close encounter with the trophy heading to Troon once again.
In the boys final, the match went in a similar direction. However, this time it was in the favour of Kyle Academy, who pulled out some nice spiking along with nice ball control in the back court.
The S2/3 Cup finals were both a battle of East vs West with Ayrshire Schools.
The Kyle-Queensferry final was a repeat of last year’s final, with Kyle Academy looking to make it 4 years in a row in this age group. Queensferry High School put on a brilliant attacking display to put Kyle on the back-foot for most of the match. Despite being frustrated by Queensferry, Kyle still managed to battle close but the Junior SVL experience, which is so important, was what made the difference between the sides, and Queensferry took the title. Kyle Academy and Belmont Academy taking on Queensferry High School and Craigmount High School in the boys and girls finals, respectively.
Craigmount had pulled off the result of the round in order to qualify for the final after travelling up to Aberdeen Grammar and finding themselves a set down against the Junior SVL experienced side and came back to win 15-11 in the tie-break to qualify for their first ever cup final.
It was a step too far as, despite a very spirited performance, Belmont Academy won the match 2-0 with a very professional performance.
The senior finals were made up of four teams who have never won the senior competition, which added extra spice and tension to the event.
The girls final was up first with Belmont Academy taking on Aberdeen Grammar, who travelled down looking to put the disappointment of their semi-final super cup defeat just two days prior to rest and take the trophy back north for the first time since Carnoustie one it in 2011. It was a great contest with 3 of the outside spikers for the Scotland U19 squads represented in the match there was some spectacular hits but it was Belmont who managed to convert their opportunities better winning 2-0, coming back from 18-22 in the 2nd set.
The guys final was cheered on by some vociferous support from both sides, Mearns Castle were taking on James Gillespies HS after both had overcame challenging semi-finals against Aberdeen Grammar and Kyle Academy respectively. James Gillespies were ran close by a very encouraging defensive display from Mearns Castle, but the power hitting from Opposite Cameron Hardman linked by the excellent distribution of setter and captain Sean Stobie proved too much for the East Renfrewshire school as James Gillespies won their first ever schools volleyball title.
You can view the gallery from the day HERE from Volleyballphotos.co.uk
A huge thank you to Calderhead High School, especially Ms Wilson, Head of Health & Wellbeing and Head Teacher Mr Robertson for their magnificent support of the event and to all the teacher, activeschools and support networks who support school volleyball.
Graeme Spowart
Club & Participation Development Officer
| Competition | Winners |
| P7/S1 BOYS | Kyle Academy |
| P7/S1 GIRLS | Marr College |
| S2/3 BOYS | Queensferry HS |
| S2/3 GIRLS | Belmont Academy |
| S4/5/6 BOYS | James Gillespie’s High School |
| S4/5/6 GIRLS | Belmont Academy |