Sunday evening saw Perth College sports hall buzzing with local volleyballers from around the Big County meeting for the opening league fixtures of the new season.
The opening match on court one pitched Brian Hutton’s Plus Perth against Mary Cook’s Aberfeldy side. Plus Perth stormed ahead in the first set running out 25-13 winners. This was followed up with a second set win by 25 points to 11.
Court two saw Michael Donaldson’s cup winning Kinross side take on Jayne Cafferty’s Nae Fear. Nae Fear made up for their cup semi-final loss to the Kinross side by edging victory 25-17; 25-23.
Aberfeldy then met Kinross on court one with the Kinross side getting back to winning ways by the narrowest of victories 25-22; 25-21.
Nae Fear followed up their opening victory with two sets to love win over Kinross High School’s youngsters and the youngsters fared no better in their next match against Motley Crew who also won in two straight sets.
It was the youngsters from Crieff High School who opened their league account against Plus Perth but they found the Perth sides experience to be the deciding factor as the Strathearn side lost both sets 11-25.
Next two of the junior teams come face to face with pupils of Crieff Secondary School facing their St John’s Academy side. The Strathearn side started the stronger and continued their good form to take the first set 25-12. The second set was more evenly contested and St Juan’s had the chance to level the match when they led 24-23 but individual errors cost them as the Crieff pupils won 26-24 in the end. St Juan had an even closer match against Ian McGrath’s Motley Crew. The St John’ side edged the first set 27-25 only for Crew to level things with a 25-21 second set score to set up a third set decider. It was Crew who ran out eventual winners taking the third set 15-5.
Barbara Moffat’s Tay Pearls opened their league fixtures against Plus Perth and it was level pegging for the first half of the first set with the score tied at 15 points each. A run of points by Plus Perth saw them take the first set 25-18 and follow this up with a second set score of 25-20.
The final match of the evening was the most exciting of all when Tay Pearls met Crieff. Crieff edged the first set 27-25 only for Pearls to win the second set 25-17. The third set decider was also poised on a knife edge with Pearls leading 14-13 as the final whistle sounded. There are no matches over the school October holiday break with the next set of fixtures scheduled for Sunday November 6th with Recreational League sides again meeting at Perth College.