Glasgow Mets Volleyball Club

As the Indian summer heat wave struck England, temperatures were reaching uncontrollable levels north of the border as the Scottish Volleyball season got underway. Reigning champions Glasgow Mets had home advantage for their first game of the season and perhaps rather cruelly set a match time of 11:00am FBS for the visitors from Aberdeen. It was however the first time either side had played in St Mungo’s Academy after Mets switched venues during the summer from Holyrood Sports Centre. As Mets warmed up you could see the squad was depleted with just enough players to have a starting 6 and libero. Coach Mark Hudson believes that the team has enough quality to mount a serious title challenge again this year. Last season’s Scottish Men’s Player of the Year and Mets captain Alan Krawczyk, is again leading the team into the forthcoming season. The rest of the team includes Alan Milton, Sean Hendry, and middle players Vincent Lyle and making his Mets debut Daryl McFarlan. The final player in the Mets team is Ryan MacLeod coming off the back of his best season ever including being capped for Scotland. The libero slot was taken by Scottish volleyball legend Barry Robertson who played so effectively through the middle last season for Mets.

There were a couple of new faces on the Bon Accord team for coach Hudson to consider, but always nice to see a friendly face as Mets welcomed back Alan Cuthbert who switched to Bon Accord a few seasons ago to coincide with his University career.

Glasgow Mets got off a to a sluggish start going 3-0 down but fought back as both teams failed to find any rhythm in the game. A block from Lyle eventually got Mets even at 5-5 and from that point on there was never more than 2 points between the sides until the business end of the set. Mets were failing to run any sort of middle attack whereas Bon Accord were having a lot of success through ex-Mets player Alan Cuthbert who was making some excellent middle hits. The responsibility for Mets fell onto Ryan MacLeod who was hitting well and keeping the set very tight. At the 2nd technical time-out Mets were leading 16-15 and it continued either level or a one point gap until Bon Accord managed to edge into a 21-18 lead. A serve into the net gave Mets a chance to get it back to a one point difference, but it was Bon Accord who gave it to them rather than Mets taking it, invasion on a back court hit. Tensions were running high and a net fault was called to level the game, a row on the benches ensued as both teams were trying desperately to win the 1st set. Alan Cuthbert hit into the net meaning Mets had won the last 4 points without putting the ball on the floor and resulted in a 22-21 lead. A scrappy rally followed and Bon Accord couldn’t return, 23-21. An awesome block from Alan Krawczyk gave Mets a 6 point win streak and even better set point. Again Bon Accord turned to the middle and this time Alan Cuthbert didn’t disappoint, hitting the floor to ensure Bon Accord had a chance to serve their way back into the set, but that serve resulted in a second ball attack by Krawczyk, first set to Mets 25-22.

The second set took the same mould as the first, a very tight affair only stretching to more than a two point gap on two separate occasions until the end of the set. Bon Accord started having more success on the outside with some good hits and Mets were having more success themselves. They got the middle running more and Sean Hendry was joining MacLeod in causing damage on the outside but again neither team could break away. Bon Accord looked as if they were going to pull away right at the death to clinch the second set as they went 21-19 in front but two errors tied the game and a third swung the match in favour of Mets. A time-out was taken by Bon Accord but a fourth consecutive error resulted in Mets needing only two points to win set number 2. New boy Daryl McFarlan blocked to give Mets set point and it was McFarlan himself who hit the winning point. Mets go 2-0 up winning the second set 25-21.

As the third set got under way the champions looked to get their season off to a perfect 3-0 start. But like the first two sets, the third set proved a very tight affair with neither team able to push away from the other. Both teams were subject to numerous serving errors and Bon Accord were buoyed going into the 2nd technical time out 13-16 ahead. Some good hitting by Alan Cuthbert through the middle and some great defensive play from Bon Accord allowed them to stretch into a 15-20 lead. Mets knew they were up against it now to win the set but that didn’t discourage them. Ryan MacLeod got Mets back into the set at 18-20 with some fantastic hitting, but Mets just couldn’t turn around the third set as they had done the previous two and eventually lost the 3rd 25-21.

Mets didn’t want to give Bon Accord any encouragement in thinking they had a chance of winning this game and they came out of the blocks flying in the 4th set. Mets pushed away to a 10-5 lead thanks to some great hitting from Sean Hendry and a great block from Vincent Lyle. However Bon Accord managed to get themselves back into the match as a series of jump serves put the Mets passing unit under pressure. As the 4th set looked to be going the way of the previous 3 some good serving from Alan Milton and great hitting by Ryan MacLeod allowed Mets to surge away from Bon Accord. Perhaps the best hit of the day came from Sean Hendry on the outside, a great set from Alan Krawzcyk allowed Sean to pound the ball the way he loves to. The main problem for the Bon Accord defence was they were unable to react and Sean’s spike smashed directly off the face of the Bon Accord off-setter. A cartoon artist would immediately have drawn birds flying round the young man’s head. No cartoon birds unfortunately, but Mets did have a 19-13 lead. Finally Mets were going into the end of a set with a lead and perhaps they felt their job was done for the day. Bon Accord however, had a fight back of their own planned and they managed to claw the set back to 21-20. As the intensity levels increased so did the standard from Mets. Ryan MacLeod was blocked, Bon Accord thought the point was theirs as cheers rang out on court, Sean Hendry somehow managed to keep the ball alive and Alan Krawczyk just managed to get a foot to it putting the ball back towards the middle of the court. New boy McFarlan was at full stretch and managed to get a hand to it to force it over the net. Bon Accord went up to block but the lack of force in the ball over the net resulted in the ball just trickling down the net face, point to Mets and they lead 23-20. Mets managed to hold on and win the 4th set 25-21 to give them a winning start to their season.