It was a tough beginning for our National Teams competing in the Novotel Cup in Luxembourg, but there were some positive insights and some good rallies.
Scotland lost their opening match of the Novotel Cup yesterday afternoon in a 3-1 defeat by Iceland. Despite narrowly winning the first set 26-24, after subs Emma Waldie and Rachel Morrison came on, Scotland was unable to maintain their lead. Tough serving from the Icelandic side made it difficult for Scotland to establish stable passing. Iceland also had strong blocking at the net which made it difficult for the Scotland attack to find a way through. Katie Barbour strengthened the passing unit and demonstrated clever hitting against the Icelandic block. There was also powerful attacking from Mhairi Agnew in the middle of the net and Shona Fraser on the outside. The team now has one more training session this morning before facing the host nation, Luxembourg at 20:00.
It was a difficult first match for Scotland men as well, up against a very big and experienced Luxembourg side. After a slow start, Scotland grew in to the game and should’ve taken the second set after failing to capitalise on two set points. However, the Luxembourg team put Scotland under real pressure in the final set with some powerful and accurate jump serves. Scotland got their middle attack running often to disrupt the opposition’s block and eventually succumbed to a 3-0 defeat. Up next is Iceland and Scotland is keen to overturn the last result between the two.
Iceland 3 – Scotland 1 (women) Luxembourg 3 – Scotland 0 (Men)
Follow and support both national teams by watching the live stream of the matches here.