The Scotland Women’s Indoor National Volleyball Team travelled to Durham to face age-old rivals England for their first competition of the season under new leadership Head Coach Danny Traylor and Assistant Coach Fiona Welsh.
There was ample experience on the road as the squad was returning nine players from the group who finished first place in the previous season’s Small Countries tournament in Iceland. The team also welcomed Emma Lawrie (Glasgow International) who made her first appearance in a Scotland strip.
Saturday’s match was a slow start with the team struggling to get the travel out of their legs. England came ready to play, and the speed and power of their offence caused Scotland many problems which the team were not able to keep up with, resulting in a 5-0 loss (23-25, 20-25, 20-25, 20-25, 12-15).
There was a new Scotland on Sunday however, after a good night’s rest and renewed vigor to avenge the previous day’s result! The team sustained a high level of quality volleyball for all 5 sets and only succumbed in the last few points of the 5th set to lose 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 25-18, 22-25, 10-15).
Head Coach Danny had this to say about the scrimmage matches:
“There was a short window of time for the team to prepare ahead of this competition given we are still very early in the season. It was a great opportunity for the team to come together to demonstrate fight and resilience. We are on the right trajectory and we know what we need to do to be ready to compete at the Small Countries in May.”
