The penultimate round of Premier Volleyball League games took place at Bell’s Sports Centre on Sunday evening with the tussle for top spot intensifying with teams’ nerves getting the better of them at some times.
Ian McGrath’s Mental Eagles took on Art Kopacz’s league leaders Team Fife. Eagles stormed to a 12-5 lead but Fifers went on a run of points, themselves, to edge ahead 20-19. The final stages saw Eagles find their wings again, winning 25-22. The second set was finely balanced throughout until the score reached 23 points each. It was Fifers who came out on top this time to level the match with a 25-23 score. With minutes remaining the third set decider saw Eagles pip the leaders 5-3 to keep their own title hopes alive.
Team Fife hitter Michael Penny against a Mental Eagles two man block in the third set decider
Eagles then faced Craig Donaldson’s Kinross Scotrange and this was the match which virtually ended Eagles’ title hopes as they had their wings well and truly “clipped” by the Kinross side 25-15; 25-20. Scotrange followed this up with a 2-0 win over SoVoBo.
Team Fife got back on track with a 2-0 win against Doug Crockart’s SoVoBo before facing another crunch match against Stuart Anderson’s Hitting Bricks. Fifers were back on form and took the first set comfortably 25-16. The second set saw Bricks battle back from 11-17 down to level the set at 22 points. Both sides held set point until Bricks won through 29-27. Full time sounded with the match ending in a draw as well as ending Team Fife’s chances of staying in top spot.
Gregor Walker’s Dodgy Spikers were pitched against local rivals Hitting Bricks for their opening fixture of the evening and this one was pivotal in terms of the title outcome. Spikers surprised their opponenets, storming to a 25-10 win. For some reason Spikers must have thought they were on easy street and they suffered a second set collapse with Bricks retaliating to level the match with a similar 25-10 score. The third set decider saw Spikers find their form again to win 15-6.
Both Bricks and Spikers then met Kintronics and with both sides winning by two sets to love, the end of the evening saw Spikers tucked nicely behind leaders Team Fife with two games in hand. So the title race is all but over with Spikers appearing to have one hand on the trophy already but maybe there will be another twist in the final round of fixtures – it will all depend on whether Spikers can hold their nerve and not suffer another collapse of form as they did in their second set against Hitting Bricks.
| Pld | Won | Drwn | Lost | Sets Won | Sets Lost | Pts For | Pts Agst | League Points | |
| Team Fife | 18 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 28 | 11 | 878 | 578 | 137 |
| Dodgy Spikers | 16 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 7 | 777 | 555 | 135 |
| Mental Eagles | 16 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 24 | 10 | 773 | 627 | 123 |
| Hitting Bricks | 17 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 16 | 19 | 722 | 640 | 88 |
| Scotrange | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 485 | 497 | 79 |
| SoVoBo | 15 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 28 | 301 | 711 | 21 |
| Kintronics | 15 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 27 | 384 | 712 | 18 |
This Sunday’s final round of Recreational League fixtures (officiating team in brackets):
| 9:00 | Plus Perth | v | Motley Crew | (Perth High B) | Hitting Bricks | v | Mongrels | (Perth High A) | |
| 19:40 | Perth High B | v | Motley Crew | (Mongrels) | Hits & Giggles | v | Perth High A | (Hitting Bricks) | |
| 20:20 | Plus Perth | v | Hitting Bricks | (Motley Crew) | Perth High B | v | Mongrels | (Hits & Giggles) | |