Scotland and Iceland to play for gold at SCA Women’s Championship

Iceland rather unexpectedly edged hosts Luxembourg 3-2 in the semis of the SCA Women’s Championship at d’Coque in Luxembourg City to set up a gold medal match with defending champions Scotland – who needed four sets to overcome Malta. Prior to the bronze and gold medal matches, on Sunday a derby between Ireland and Northern Ireland will define which team will finish the competition in fifth place.

Scotland took on Malta in the semi-finals and the Scots showed that they are ready to defend their SCA title, cruising to a 3-1 victory (25-21, 25-12, 20-25, 25-15). Malta did leave its mark on the match though by winning the third set and showing good development as an up-and-coming team.

Iceland was with the back against the wall as the team lost 3-2 against Scotland the day before while Luxembourg had won both pool phase matches in three quick sets. The match started with Luxembourg taking an 8-1 lead and it looked that it would be another easy three sets for the home side, but it was like the dream fainted out for the hosts. Iceland managed to win the first set 25-23 and the second by the same score. It was to some extent a surprise but then Luxembourg finally answered back by winning the third set 25-23 and the fourth 25-13. In the tie-break, Iceland took immediately the lead and never gave in even though Luxembourg came close, running out victors at 15-12. It was a disappointment for the Luxembourg team that scored more points overall and yet did end up losing the match. Iceland’s stronghold in the match was the better attacking patterns, with strong block and serve throughout the match while Luxembourg faced many problems in reception.

Last pool phase matches end in victories for Malta and Scotland

The last match in Pool A featured Malta and Ireland. It was a five-set tight match as both teams were fighting for a place in the semi-finals. In short, Malta edged over Ireland by winning the tiebreak 15-10, thus qualifying for the semis. The Maltese team was more stable and made less technical errors than its opponents. Ireland took the first set, 25-23, and Malta answered 26-24 in the second and took the lead by winning the third set 25-19, before Ireland levelled the match in the fourth (25-22). The Maltese team looked confident in the fifth set and claimed fairly the match 3-2 and with it its spot in the semis.

In the last match of Pool B, Scotland took on Northern Ireland vying for the top spot in the group. Scotland won the first set 25-17 and this way they set the tone for the remainder of the match. The Northern Irish team did not give into the pressure as they came back in the second set and they forced Scotland to a timeout by the score of 13-9 but Scotland levelled 15-15 and edged ahead at 17-15, After that, the Scots comfortably cruised to a 25-17 win. The Northern Irish team made too many unforced technical errors when there was need for stability and the third set was very much one-sided, ending at 25-12 for Scotland, with the defending SCA champions securing the top spot in Pool B.

Visit the brand-new SCA’s YouTube channel to retrieve the full matches.