Teams from Luxembourg and Scotland triumph at SCA zonal event

Teams from Luxembourg and Scotland claimed top honours at the SCA zonal event held this past weekend in Perth, Scotland.

The final match of the men’s tournament saw home heroes David Mexson/James McHardy facing off against Colin Hilbert/Steve Weber of Luxembourg. It was a tight affair as the match swung back and forth, both teams showing they were deserving finalists, and proving their mettle. It was not to be for Scotland on the day, as Mexson/McHardy fell in two sets and had to be content with the silver medal for the weekend (21-15, 21-18). It was a deserved victory for Hilbert/Weber who performed incredibly throughout the entire tournament! 

Next up were Kathryn Barbour/Rachel Morrison, who knew that claiming gold would mean victory over the pair, Victoria Palmer and Alana Snow of England, who had knocked out their compatriots, Lynne Beattie/Mhairi Agnew in the semis. The match was one to remember, as a competitive spectacle saw the home pair pushed to their limit against a well drilled opposition. As the final whistle blew, Scotland was victorious. Set scores of 21-18, 21-18 meant Barbour/Morrison had claimed the gold without dropping a set all weekend. Earlier, Beattie and Agnew had secured the bronze medal for Scotland as they came out firing and handled their business in a professional manner against Fiona Lamont and Lara McNichols of Ireland. Two quick sets (21-11, 21-11) made sure they left Perth with the bronze.  

Blair Pettigrew, Interim Beach Performance Programme Manager added: “From a performance perspective, it was greatly satisfying to see three podium places across the programme. I would like to put on record my thanks to all the team at Scottish Volleyball, the referees and volunteers that made the event happen. We had some extremely strong performances and some great exposure for a number of our teams.  It was of course fantastic to see Katie and Rachel win without dropping a set all tournament in what was a composed, coming-of-age performance and I look forward to seeing them kick on and use these points to make a dent on the world stage. A special mention for David and Jamie taking the silver medal, in what was a great performance for a pairing that had spent so little time on the sand together. Lynne and Mhairi are another exciting pair for me, and it is great to see them medal in what was I think only their fourth competitive outing together, Mhairi’s transition to Beach Volleyball is still at an early stage and we are all looking forward to seeing how that partnership can develop. All in in all it was a very pleasing event and combined with some great performance from development athletes displays how much our Beach Programme has developed over the past 18 months.”  

Pictures courtesy of www.volleyballphotos.co.uk