With the arrival of 2025, it was also the arrival of the first ever 5 Nations Tournament, hosted by Volleyball England in the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering. Making the trip down were the Senior Men’s and Women’s Scotland squads, ably assisted by their coaching and statistician teams. Just 2 matches on the opening day, with the men up first against Northern Ireland, winning their first match 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-21). The Women followed that with a win of their own, kicking off their fight for first place with a 3-1 result (25-11, 25-18, 17-25, 25-10). Seven of our players gained their first Senior International Caps on Friday (3rd) – congratulations to Jack Arnold, Daniel Przybylski, Ioannis Siovas, Cole Turnbull, Lauren Hislop, Holly Scott and Antonina Porsch!
Day 2 (4th) was an early start with the men up first against, this time against Ireland. They comfortably won the match 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-17) with Head Coach Ally Jack making full use of his squad over the 3 sets. The women backed that up with another win as well, bringing home the match 3-0. It was an excellent match for Carly Murray, who gained her 50th cap for the Scottish National team. Congratulations Carly!
The afternoon saw Scotland take on hosts England. The men were again up first in what was sure to be an exciting match! The ball was in Scotland’s court as the previous winners in this ever exciting match up. Scotland had some moments of brilliance but couldn’t quite keep up their momentum from their first two games, falling to the hosts 3-1 (18-25, 28-30, 25-23, 21-25). Michail Siovas and Ewan Ramsay were particularly effective, racking up an attacking percentage of 67% and 5 aces between them. Straight after was the women’s national team, hoping to bring back the heat with a win for Scotland. The first set was a brilliant display of dominance, with Scotland eventually taking the win 3-1 (25-16, 25-23, 20-25, 25-11). Rachel Morrison, Alexis Crusey and Shona Fraser were winning points left right and centre, all 3 players hitting double digits for their number of kills during the match.
Today we aim for gold, as both teams take on opponents England yet again to fight for first place. The men’s match is at 10:30 and can be watched live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7xLmzYVaiE, while the women start their match at 12:45 and can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3knstErPcl0&ab_channel=VolleyballEngland
Let’s go Scotland!
