Kyle maintain seven-year winning run
Aberdeen Grammar, Queensferry High and Kyle Academy all celebrated victory doubles at the Scottish School Cup finals at the newly refurbished Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.
Kyle has won a Schools’ Cup every year since 2010, and the run was maintained in the youngest section.
The Ayrshire school did the double in the Primary seven/ Senior one finals. The boys defeated newcomers Kinross High, while the girls overcame Queensferry High.
Kyle was also in the final of the Senior 2/3 boys’ Cup, but it was Aberdeen Grammar – a school with string contacts to Beacon Blaze – that claimed the top prize.
Amazingly, Kyle has won 14 Schools Cup category titles in the past eight seasons, a tremendous achievement and a very fitting one for the key driver behind the school’s thriving volleyball programme, Mr Gerry Phillips, who retires this year.
In the girls Senior 2/3 final,it was Queensferry High v Aberdeen Grammar. All of the Queensferry side featured in the under-16 Junior SVL title winning team for City of Edinburgh and they confirmed their favourite stage with a 2-0 win.
The girls senior final also featured the same teams as last year – holders Marr College versus Aberdeen Grammar – and it was sweet revenge for the north-east side.
Aberdeen started strongly with some strong scoring by Shona Fraser, who won her first Scotland cap just two days prior to the match.
There wasn’t a huge amount between the sides but it was first set to Aberdeen.the second was nip and tuck all the way and some very impressive defensive play by Marr squared the match.
But the Granite City girls were stronger in the decider and lifted the cup.
In the senior boys’ final, James Gillespie’s High School was trying to maintain a 30-month unbeaten record, but they lost the first set to Queensferry High.
It was a strong run by Fraser Glass that helped the Queensferry side raise hope of an upset.
But the Edinburgh team, coached by last year’s winning captain, Sean Platts Stobie, showed real gutsy spirit to fight back and dominate the second set, with setter Hector Friend going on a remarkable serving run of 12 points.
So it was into a decider, and Queensferry High saved three match points and James Gillespie’s saved five.
But, on the sixth match point, the Queensferry boys secured a nailbiting victory. A strong serve by Queensferry captain Logan Darling did the business.