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Match Report 18/2/06 Satuday 18th February saw the last of the regular season matches in the SVA division one. The top four teams qualify for the end of season League Championship Play-offs. After losing 5 out of 7 AWAY matches in 5th set tie breaks, City of Edinburgh found themselves needing a win over 2004-05 Champions Ragazzi, while also needing local rivals NUVOC to slip up in their last match. City of Edinburgh kept to their part of the bargain with their first ever win over City of Glasgow Ragazzi in an SVA League or Cup competition. The win will give the capital side a much needed confidence boost ahead of their SVA cup semi-final against Kilmarnock next weekend. "We are a much better team than a week ago." said team coach Ian Brownlee "We were more competitive and the players looked like they wanted to find a way to win every point. Robin Miedzybrodzki had his best performance for months and Simon Hammond is now playing at the top of his game which is great for him and the team." Alas on the other side of Edinburgh, Pentland NUVOC had not read the script and secured the remaining 4th play-off position by beating Team Fife 3-0. Final Score City of Edinburgh 3 City of Glasgow Ragazzi 1 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-14
Match Report 11/2/06 City of Edinburgh travelled to Grange Academy, in an attempt to be the only 1st division side to win a match or even a set of volleyball there this season. Kilmarnock wasted no time in the opening set finding their serving and hitting form. Meanwhile City of Edinburgh with 2 forced changes from last week due to player absences struggled with the speed of the game and were 14-25 and 0-1 down and hadn't played any real volleyball of their own. Coach Brownlee brought Colin Macnab into the line up in the 2nd set and although the passing from Macnab immediately helped the City of Edinburgh spikers were lacking with a series of hitting errors and serving errors fell to a 2-0 deficit, 14-25 again. Set 3 and the team finally found the combination that was matching up better to the Kilmarnock side. With the City of Edinburgh spikers now scoring and the City of Edinburgh servers causing some problems in the Killie passing unit the capital side became the first this season to take a set at the Grange. However the set was little consolation as City of Edinburgh couldn't keep the pressure on the Killie passing unit and with Killie upping their service and hitting game they were too strong and ran through winners easily in the 4th 25-19. City of Edinburgh can take little satisfaction from the set won, as coach Ian Brownlee will know he has his work cut out to close the massive 11 point gap in the first 2 sets lost in just two weeks before the sides meet in the SVA cup semi final on 25th February. "It was a missed opportunity today to push Killie closer than we did" said Brownlee "Almost nobody was ready to play the game and, although we had some practical difficulties with training arrangements this week the players needed a warm-up during the game. We can't expect to win at this level if we don't start hitting until the 3rd set. Killie were ruthless and the set scores show they took full advantage. We need to approach the semi-final with a much better attitude or we can't expect the result to be any better." Final Score Kilmarnock 3 City of Edinburgh 1 25-14, 25-14, 20-25, 25-19
Match Report 21/1/06 City of Edinburgh Volleyball guaranteed their place in the 2006-07 SVA Division One with a 3-0 victory over Dundee in front of an excited support at Queensferry High School this afternoon. The win ends the 5 match series of 2-3 defeats suffered by the capital side and leap frogs them past Bon Accord and NUVOC into 4th place in the SVA division one. The win means that City of Edinburgh have played themselves out of the relegation zone, guaranteed at worst 6th place, and still with a theoretical chance of making the 2006 league play-offs. Coach Ian Brownlee commented: Final Score City of Edinburgh 3 Dundee 0 25-18, 25-17, 25-22 Attendance: 100
Match Report 14/1/06
City of Edinburgh were without power hitter Simon Hammond and with captain Scott McKenzie not yet recovered from his ankle injury sustained against Dundee in December it was a new line up that took to the court in Aberdeen. City of Edinburgh were slow to start in the opening set and, as with other recent away matches, found themselves trailing 1 set down after the opener. Then in the second with McGuigan and Macnab passing well and with the City of Edinburgh servers beginning to find their form the match was tied at 1-1. City of Edinburgh opened the third set in dazzling form, with McGuigan serving 8 in a row to take the side from 3-1 down to a 9-3 lead. The capital side built on this with some nice block and defence play and, with a 20-14 lead, looked to be in control of the set. Bon Accord hit back some solid jump serving but it was a truly awful series of unforced errors by City of Edinburgh that put the Aberdeen side back in the set and somehow City of Edinburgh found themselves 2-1 down. There was some spirited play from City of Edinburgh in the 4th, with McGivern in awesome serving form and Iain Wallace making some great defence in his return to first team play. But the damage of losing the third set from a 20-14 lead had been done. After opening a winning lead in the 4th, City of Edinburgh again almost tried to give the set away before having to win it a second time to tie the game at 2-2. In the fifth the home side were the much more focussed of the two and with a noisy crowd cheering them on Muir Matheson Bon Accord took control of the tie-break to take the match. City of Edinburgh must now beat Dundee on 21 January, at their first home match in 12 weeks, in order to avoid likely relegation from the top division next season. Final Score Muir Matheson Bon Accord 3 City of Edinburgh 2 25-18, 19-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12
Match Report 10/12/05 City of Edinburgh Volleyball City of Edinburgh played in the last 16 of the SVA Scottish Cup today, drawn away to third division Lenzie who had topped their qualifying pool from rounds 1 - 3 to qualify for the fourth round tie. The young City of Edinburgh side seemed to enjoy the break away from the relentless pressures of division one. Tough jump serving from the capital side dominated the game and with McGivern in excellent hitting form Edinburgh ran to a 3-0 victory. City of Edinburgh now progress to the cup quarter finals on 4th February. The capital side will know their opponents by next weekend as the draw for the quarter finals will be made immediately after the Scotland vs England women's international at the Kelvin Hall ISA this Saturday, 17th December, and immediately before the Scotland v England men's international. Final Score Lenzie 0 City of Edinburgh 3 12-25, 13-25, 8-25
Match Report 03/12/05 It seems a long time since week 3 of NL where City of Edinburgh were sitting unbeaten in NL1 and looking good for the end of season play-offs. After losing the last three matches on 5th set tie-breaks, City of Edinburgh set out to play 8th place Dundee hoping that one final push before Christmas break would push them back up into 4th place in the league. Dundee won the opening set with some tough serving as City of Edinburgh were slow to get started for the second match running. With captain Scott McKenzie rallying the troops and in good blocking form City of Edinburgh tied the match at 1-1. The momentum stayed with the capital side and they led 22-18 when McKenzie collided with a Dundee blocker and fell with an ankle injury. City of Edinburgh held on with players out of position to take a 2-1 lead by closing out the third 25-19. At 2-1 up this was the time for City of Edinburgh to keep the side-out steady and to keep the pressure up from the service line. Dundee meanwhile knew they had to serve tougher and hit better. Dundee must have thought Christmas had come early as it was a tired and jaded City of Edinburgh who gifted the fourth set to Dundee without making a real attempt to close the game 3-1. The absence of captain McKenzie was beginning to tell in the 5th as it was more lacklustre play from Edinburgh that gave Dundee an easy 8-2 lead. The 5th may well have gone 15-2 Dundee, but young setter Gavin Watt had different ideas and hammered three jump serves to bring City of Edinburgh back to 8-5. After a service error from Dundee, Mark McGivern followed Watt's lead with an awesome series of jump serves to take an 11-10 lead. But the rigours of the last six weeks and the loss of three tie-breaks had taken its toll and City of Edinburgh were unable to show any interest at the end of the set. "It has been a real learning experience for our young team." said head coach Ian Brownlee "Losing four senior players over the summer was a lot to deal with, as was bringing in three young players who hadn't played the first division before. But the new players have being great and they are making huge progress. We got off to a great start in October with three wins out of three matches, but the run of 5 set tie-break matches, and losing each of them, has taken it's toll mentally and physically. We do have Christmas break now from the league campaign and based on today it looks like we really need it. We were of course a bit unlucky with Scott McKenzie getting injured when we were leading, but we were still too tired to close the match out 3-1. It is very difficult when you lose in these circumstances." The result means that City of Edinburgh go into Christmas break in 5th position in the SVA National League division one. Final Score Dundee 3 City of Edinburgh 2 25-20, 22-25, 19-25, 25-22, 15-13
Match Report 26/11/05 City of Edinburgh travelled away to Team Fife today to try to bring their current run of losses to an end... The capital side got off to a shocking start, trailing 2 sets to 0 before even getting out of gear. After moving a few players round, City of Edinburgh began to find some serving and blocking form that brought them back into the match to tie at 2-2. It was the third tie break in as many weeks for City of Edinburgh. The capital side had three match points and, with direct errors, failed to convert any of three. After a marathon of a 5th set it was Fife who finally made the scoring hits to win the 5th 25-23. "The players will obviously be disappointed." said team coach Ian Brownlee "Fife did ambush us in the opening two sets, but met with little resistance and we just gifted them a 2 set lead. In the 5th set we missed far too many serves, especially on match points and lacked conviction to spike winners at key moments." The loss of 3 tie-breaks in as many weeks means that City of Edinburgh must now win their match against Dundee next week or face possible relegation this season. Final Score Team Fife 3 City of Edinburgh 2 25-22, 25-17, 23-25, 24-25, 25-23
Match Report 19/11/05 Today City of Edinburgh took on local rivals NUVOC at the Crags. NUVOC have had a good run of results this season under their new Swedish Coach Peter Mahler and have to be in the running for a play-off slot this season. The two sides met on the opening fixture of the season, where City of Edinburgh edged the match 3-2. If City of Edinburgh hoped that some of the form from last week's match against champions Ragazzi would spill over into this week, they were to be disappointed today.. In the opening set City of Edinburgh couldn't manage to establish any stability in passing or defence and it was only some heroic hitting and a great run of serves of Danny Traylor that helped City of Edinburgh take the opener. In the 2nd set things went from bad to worse. With setter Gavin Watt wondering if any balls were going to be passed to him, NUVOC capitalised with their three outside hitters in good form. Following the shocker of a 2nd set Brownlee took radical action and moved Traylor to power hitter and brought Macnab on to stabilise the 1st pass. With Traylor in inspirational hitting and serving form the balance of the match shifted again with City of Edinburgh taking the 3rd. In the 4th set the NUVOC servers and spikers came at City of Edinburgh with everything they had. But with only Traylor scoring regularly for City of Edinburgh and with passing and defence still lacking, the match was tied at 2-2. If the 5th set City of Edinburgh made one last push, but the game belonged to NUVOC who had three spikers in scoring form. City of Edinburgh coach Ian Brownlee commented: "It is very frustrating when you are not playing well in an important match and so many players are struggling to find any kind of form. NUVOC were excellent at times today and deserve their win, but it is very disappointing to come into a match of this importance and perform so badly. On the positives it was a very encouraging performance from 19 year old Daniel Traylor today. He was excellent." Next week City of Edinburgh travel away to 8th place Team Fife. Final Score NUVOC 3 City of Edinburgh 2 20-25, 25-17, 16-25, 25-15, 15-21
Match Report 13/11/05 City of Edinburgh travelled to the Kelvin Hall International Sports arena today. Their league match against City of Glasgow Ragazzi was scheduled for a Sunday to allow hundreds of young volleyballers aged 11 - 14 playing in the 10th Glasgow Youth Volleyball Tournament to watch the game. As the crowd were taking their seats the City of Edinburgh players took little time to settle. With some nice passing and defence from McGuigan and outside hitters Hammond and Traylor in good form City of Edinburgh took the opener 25-23. Set 2 and Ragazzi decided to up the tempo of the match, with national team setter Stephen Linton making good use of the Ragazzi 1st tempo. But City of Edinburgh matched up the battle of the 1st tempos and with McGuigan passing particularly well City of Edinburgh setter Gavin Watt finding Miedzybrodzki and McGivern the capital side took a 2-0 lead. Both teams seemed to sense the 3rd set was crucial. City of Edinburgh had gone out fast and the pace was becoming too much. Ragazzi had started slow and were now beginning to play. The match was in the balance. With some awesome power jump serving from Mark McGivern and with McGuigan getting into a hitting game City of Edinburgh took an 18-14 lead in the 3rd. While City of Edinburgh backed off their serve Ragazzi upped their serve and blocking game and the scoring hits needed to cross the finishing line eluded the City of Edinburgh side as Ragazzi took the 3rd 27-25. In the 4th Ragazzi were now firing on all cylinders and City of Edinburgh almost conceded the inevitability of a tie-break to give Ragazzi an easy win of the 4th set. If Ragazzi thought the 5th would be just as easy, City of Edinburgh had other ideas. With Miedzyrodzki, now playing as an outside hitter, in scoring form the capital side were 8-7 up at the turn. Some exciting rallies followed with FIVB international referee Brian McDougal being kept alert. At 13-12 up a service error from City of Edinburgh made it 13-13, before a kill block for Ragazzi led the Glasgow side to a 15-13 win. "We played 2 sets of excellent volleyball today" said 1st team coach Ian Brownlee "It is very disappointing not to have had the 2 or 3 serves and hits needed to take us to a possible 3-0 victory. But, you have to hand it to Ragazzi - they are the current champions for a reason and they made the points to reverse the fortunes of the game. We will just have to get stronger, so we will be better next time the two sides meet." Final Score City of Glasgow Ragazzi 3 City of Edinburgh 2 23-25, 22-25, 27-25, 25-17, 15-13
Match Report 5/11/05 City of Edinburgh played host to Kilmarnock, winners of the division one championship over 1998 - 2003. The first set was not a crowd pleaser, with lots of mistakes from both teams, and only some nice 1st tempo play from Miedzybrodzki for the home support to cheer about. Kilmarnock got their act together first and with some tough serving from Alan Thomas and Garry McGuire they took a 1-0 lead. At the change of ends Brownlee brought middle blocker McGivirn into the game. Mark has missed the last 3 matches after sustaining an ankle injury. After training this week and with protective strapping in place McGivirn started the 2nd set. The return of McGivirn to the court inspired the young Edinburgh side. With Simon Hammond delivering a barrage of power jump serves the capital side edged into the lead. Spiker Miedzybrodzki moved to outside spiker, where he scored time after time in side-out as the capital side tied the match at 1-1. The 3rd set was always going to be crucial for City of Edinburgh. Kilmarnock edged into a lead with setter Alan Thomas making good use of 1st tempo and kept their 2 point lead throughout most of the set. In the closing stages it was Thomas again from the service line who made sure it was Kilmarnock who took the 2-1 lead. From there Kilmarnock wasted little time heading for the finishing line, although some spirited play from City of Edinburgh almost brought the set back into contention. "It is good to have McGivirn back." said head coach Ian Brownlee "He seems to give the team a belief we can win any match. Hopefully he will be close to 100% for next weekend. We will need him as we take on current champions City of Glasgow Ragazzi at the Kelvin Hall." Final ScoreCity of Edinburgh 1 Kilmarnock 3 19-25, 25-20, 21-25, 20-25 Attendance 30
Match Report 29/10/05 City of Edinburgh couldn't manage to turn around their 0-3 loss against Glasgow Mets as they played the 2nd of two back to back matches, this time in Glasgow. In the first set City of Edinburgh passed well and produced some nice side-out play that was missing last week. With the spikers in both teams still half asleep following the 10.30 am start, it was Mets who woke up first to win the first set. Mets knew they hadn't played well in the opening set, yet were still 1-0 up. They took great confidence from this and followed on to produce their best volleyball of the two match series to win sets 2 and 3 with a wide margin to spare. Coach Brownlee was not too disheartened by the performance "Of course it was frustrating that we did not capitalise in the opening set when some spiking would have put us 1-0 up and given us a route into the match. Perhaps next time the players will remember this and take the opportunity when it is given to them. If you don't take your opportunities then there is no point in complaining when your opponents do. The scores do hide that we passed and generally played better this week in serve receptio and spiking in sets 2 and 3. It was a better performance by Mets that prevented us from scoring more heavily." The two match series has been a great learning opportunity for our young setter Gavin Watt playing against such a strong transition team that may challenge for both league and cup titles this year. Last week the game was the first time he would have been in such a difficult situation. Today the tempo of our side out offence was much better. He will want to play better than this, but he continues to make great progress. Sometimes you forget he was playing division 3 last year and he is still just 17." Final ScoreGlasgow Mets 3 City of Edinburgh 0 25-23, 25-17, 25-14
Match Report 22/10/05 The flying start of consecutive wins in the 2005-06 season for City of Edinburgh came to an end today with a 0-3 loss to Glasgow Mets. The Glasgow side dominated the net game. Mets setter Allan Krawczyk controlled his teams offence to allow the Mets spikers to score heavily while the spikers in the capital side failed to hit with enough authority. Power hitter Simon Hammond was City of Edinburgh's main cause for hope, serving aces on the Mets unit and coming up with some power hits when they were needed. However, coach Brownlee was not too dismayed at the result. "We started again today with our youngest team and playing Mets at full strength is good experience for them. We didn't pass well enough and we didn't have enough hitting options either so the result probably reflects that. We play Mets again next week in Glasgow and we need more players to hold their ground in the hitting zones if we want the result to be better." Final Score City of Edinburgh 0 Glasgow Mets 3 19-25, 19-25, 16-25 Photo: City of Edinburgh's best player of the match, Simon Hammond
Match report 15/10/05 City of Edinburgh today attempted to build on their promising start of 2 wins out of 2 in the 2005-06 SVA division one season. They did however have to play today's match without Scotland middle spiker Mark McGivern who was injured on Wednesday. Meanwhile, after their narrow 2-3 defeat to City of Glasgow Ragazzi in the opening match and a 0-3 loss last week, Muir Matheson Bon Accord were looking to chalk up their first victory of the season. The Aberdeen side started much better of the two teams, with power hitters Andrew Stronach and Andrew McKernan both jump serving and hitting particularly well. The capital side barely got into the set before they trailed Bon Accord 0-1. In the second set it was the usual suspects Watt and Hammond helping the City of Edinburgh cause from the service line but the pressure was still on in a close set. With some confidence and better play needed, it was Traylor emerging as the team's top spiker on the day who led the City of Edinburgh charge to get back into the match winning the 2nd. There was a similar pattern in the 4th, with City of Edinburgh beginning to play better defence and Traylor again in great serving and hitting form the capital side took a 2-1 lead. "That was a great result today" said Traylor "we were being out-played to begin with but we competed well to turn the game around. I am pleased with my serving and spiking today but the main thing is that the team won." Final Score City of Edinburgh 3 Bon Accord 1 22-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-13 attendance 30
Match Report 8/10/05 City of Edinburgh today played host to Team Fife, one of the most experienced teams in the SVA Division One. In the opening set City of Edinburgh missed too many serves to open a lead but kept themselves in the set with their characteristic side out play, with middle attacker Mark McGivern and power hitter Simon Hammond in particularly devastating form. A run of jump serves from setter Gavin Watt helped the capital side open the smallest of leads and this was enough to take the opening set. The second set saw the best defence ever played by a City of Edinburgh side and with Miedzybrodzki making some spectacular digs this inspired the whole City team to defend the Fife spike attacks and save so many points that Fife looked to have won. The serving that was missing in the first set started to appear again with McGuigan and Miedzbrodzki serving particularly well the score was 2-0. By the third set Fife were by now commit blocking 3 players on McGivern but with McGivern combined well with setter Watt City of Edinburgh maintained their side-out. It was then more spectacular defence from City and some awesome counter-attack play from Miedzybrodzki as City powered their way to a 3-0 victory. The result puts City of Edinburgh on played 2, won 2. "I am pleased with today's performance" said coach Ian Brownlee "City of Edinburgh have traditionally been one of the poorest defensive teams in division one and had to rely on servicing aces, blocking and side-out alone to win matches. We have been working hard on defence and it is good so see the team doing better in this part of the game. We stayed in so many rallies because of our defence that we wouldn't have been involved in before." Final Score City of Edinburgh 3 Team Fife 0 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 [photo: player of the match Robin Miedzybrodzki]
Match Report 1/10/05 Today was the opening of the 2005 06 SVA National League division one and City of Edinburgh took on local rivals Pentland NUVOC. The match would be an interesting test after some promising pre-season results for the new look capital outfit. Coach Brownlee showed his confidence in the new kids on the block Gavin Watt, Colin Macnab and Daniel Traylor by putting the 3 teenagers in the starting line up. Set 1 saw City of Edinburgh start the better of the two teams and with outside spikers Daniel Traylor and Simon Hammond in unstoptable form took the capital side took the opener 25-17. City of Edinburgh trailed in the second before some great quick attacks with Mark McGivern in devastating form the set flipped and the lead was 2-0. NUVOC looked to lose concentration and with City of Edinburgh leading 2-0 and 23-19 it looked to be all over. But anxiety got the better of the young side as they squandered chance after chance. NUVOC sensed the opportunity to stay in the game to win the 3rd 28-26. In the 4th set City of Edinburgh could not re-establish their offence and with the jump servers uncharacteristically tame the match was tied 2-2. Time for the tie-break. The 5th set saw NUVOC continue to make defence and score in counter-attack as City of Edinburgh failed to score in serve receive. At the turn the 8-4 lead to NUVOC did not make good reading for the home players. Then it was time for City of Edinburgh to play some defence and with setter Gavin Watt running a nice counter-attack this was enough to tie the game at 2-2, 11-11. An awesome block from Mark McGivern gave City of Edinburgh the momentum and at match point 14-13 power hitter Simon Hammond clinched the victory for City of Edinburgh. Final Score City of Edinburgh 3 Pentland NUVOC 2 25-17, 25-21, 26-28, 23-25, 15-13 attendance 25 [photo: City of Edinburgh power hitter Simon Hammond, player of the match, who clinched match point with a power spike]
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City of Edinburgh's Simon Hammond back in top form
City of Edinburgh's Colin Macnab has a great serving/passing game in his first match at The Grange
photo: City of Edinburgh's Barry McGuigan helped the capital side win the match with his best passing game of the season
photo: player of the match Mark McGivern
photo: City of Edinburgh's player of the match Scott McKenzie
Photo: City of Edinburgh's player of the match, Daniel Traylor
photo: best player of today's match, Gavin Watt
