Scottish Volleyball’s oldest ongoing cup competition, the Scottish Student Volleyball Cup, may be 60 years old this year, but the talent on display was as fresh as ever in the recent semi-finals! The venue was the Sport and Active Health at the University of Dundee, which saw University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, University of Edinburgh, and the University of St Andrews prove their quality and became the first teams to qualify for a Scottish Student Volleyball Cup final at Scottish Volleyball’s Cup Finals Weekend.
Starting with our Men’s Semi-Finals, the University of Aberdeen started strongly against the BUCS Scottish Tier 1 leaders and BUCS Trophy Semi-Finalists University of Strathclyde and pushed the number one men’s team hard in set 1. However, Strathclyde’s strength became increasingly apparent, with captain Viktor Penev leading his maroon troops to a 3:0 victory. Meanwhile on the other court, the home side from University of Dundee did not look to be a division below their Heriot-Watt rivals, as they competed well in a match of power and speed. A Heriot-Watt team including four members of the U20 European Championships Scotland squad did continue to stick in rallies and used their skill and class to remain ahead and qualify to meet Strathclyde in the final.
After lunch, it was a battle of the green teams where Tier 2 Stirling took on BUCS Premier side Edinburgh. With Edinburgh struggling with injuries, Stirling showed they were not to be taken for granted and did themselves proud against a side from two divisions above. Despite that, previous Scottish Cup finalists, the University of Edinburgh remained calm and composed to qualify for the final where they will be aiming for their record 20th Scottish Student Cup win! Meanwhile, Scottish Tier 1 leader University of Glasgow were locked in a ding-dong battle against local team University of St Andrews. In the longest match of the competition, Glasgow and St Andrews played five sets and were tied multiple times in set 5 before St Andrews broke away at 10-10 to take the fifth and deciding set.
The two finals will be hosted as part of Scottish Volleyball’s largest ever Cup Finals Weekend on Friday 18th April 2025 at Sport & Exercise Pleasance Sports Complex and Gym at the University of Edinburgh. The Men will lead off Student Day with a 1pm First Ball before the Women show their skills at 3pm. We will recognise our SSS National Teams as well as announcing the Scottish Student Sport Volleyball Volunteer of the Year between the matches and there will be plenty of activities to keep you entertained.
Tickets are now available, and we advise buying soon as we were sold out for the Scottish Cup Finals last year! Tickets can be found here https://fixr.co/event/cup-finals-weekend-2025-tickets-172693040?fbclid=IwY2xjawIn72FleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfjXlF0h7O5YvJlxrucc8MqsDnOZd5-CwnwpCsmHeAfaMywW8rqOXJ1WtA_aem_7psO4A-gQ3WwW4jyVp8SAw and we are offering a prize to the university who buys the most tickets, with the winner announced between the two finals.
If you can’t make your way to Edinburgh, we will also be providing live coverage of the matches across our social media channels and live on YouTube.