Bon Accord came into the match with confidence after a 3-1 victory in Glasgow over Mets, a result which narrowly secured their place in the Top three for the League Split. The visitors didn’t have as good an experience in their last match, also in Glasgow, going down 2-3 to City of Glasgow Ragazzi in a match which saw Ragazzi save an impressive five match points.
In the pre-match notes, both coaches highlighted the importance that the service battle would have out the outcome of the match. This proved to be a defining factor in in the outcome which saw the visitors rack up 11 aces.
The early stages were dominated by the opposition with some precision serving allowing Edinburgh to put up a well formed block defence unit. Despite some strong scoring from Bon Accord opposite Paolo Frings, the home side were unable to string any points together going down 12-25.
In the second set, the service became even more of a contributing factor. It was tight in the early stages as Marco Papasizza managed to score well through the middle. But with only two points in it, Edinburgh Captain Niall Collin stepped up to the service line with a run of 9 serves, which include an amazing four aces in a row, to give City set point.
The final set saw some changes for Edinburgh, but Bon Accord’s Injury crisis did
not permit them with many options to salvage the outcome of the match. Frings and Stronach scored well for Bon Accord but were always up against a strong block as the passing unit was unable to allow Hadden to get his middle players into the game. On the opposition side Arthur distributed well with Boyle and Gibson scoring consistently taking Edinburgh to 25-16.
The defeat puts the title out reach for Bon Accord but the team will be looking to add a cup run to their top three finish, which would result a very successful first season back in the SVL Premier.
Thank you to Beacon’s Ken Fraser for his assistance with this weeks feature.
Focus now switches to the cup competitions for teams before the return of the SVL on Saturday 4th March.