The Crags Sports Centre was the location for the first Meet me at the Net event of 2012-13. After a few years of having to float around different facilities around Edinburgh, NUVOC volleyball club have managed to secure their volleyball activity within this centre once again.
Providing this central location for the club to operate from is a key part of the club ethos and NUVOC are starting to reap the benefits with 7 more registered members than last year and a thriving recreational side to the club which regularly accommodates 20-30 people on Monday evenings.
The first match saw NUVOC men take on City of Edinburgh II in the Schelde Sports National East Division. The line-up for NUVOC was a diverse mix of club stalwarts, student players through the clubs link with Edinburgh University and new signing David Smith, playing in his 2nd Match for the club. The match was extremely competitive right from the start with the battle proving to be between the outside hitters, with Finlay Haddow (NUVOC) and Ross Kirkwood (CoE) trading points regularly from the left side. Despite the boys from Queensferry holding a lead for most of the set, NUVOC rallied and took full advantage of some poor serving from the visitors, to take the set 25-22.
NUVOC’s experience and tactical hitting was proving very effective and with the score at 10-11 and frustration showing on the faces of City of Edinburgh’s young players, Ian Brownlee settled his team during a time-out and 6 points later, the visitors were 16-11 up.
It was now NUVOC coach Gerry MacDonald’s turn to call a time-out to try and galvanise his squad but with the loss of Star hitter Finlay Haddow to a back injury a few points later, City of Edinburgh took the set 25-16.
NUVOC suffered in the absence of captain Finlay Haddow and despite some great fight they conceded the 3rd set as well.
Thanks to some clever hitting from outside hitter David Smith, NUVOC deservedly led 12-11 before a tactical change from City saw the introduction of fresh outside hitters Sean McCashey and Stuart Parker. This saw the set turn in the visitors’ favour, with City of Edinburgh taking the set 25-19 and the match 3-1.
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