After their hard fought victory over Bon Accord in Aberdeen last week, Kilmarnock Blaze were faced with the task of defeating current league champions, City Of Edinburgh.  Although Edinburgh won the previous meeting between the sides this season, Kilmarnock went into the match in much better form than the struggling champions.

Kilmarnock made the better start as they took advantage of an unusually shaky Edinburgh passing unit, taking an early lead in the first set.  Edinburgh however held on, and didn’t allow Killie to stretch out too big a lead, until Stewart Caldwell went to the service line just after the second technical timeout and put in a run of serves that put the set beyond all doubt.  Kilmarnock soon closed out the set 25-17.

Edinburgh made changes for the second set, as the looked to change the pattern of the game.  The substitutions made a big difference at first as Killie took a while to adjust to the new players.  After Edinburgh took an early lead, Colin Giles led the come back with a run of 3 blocks in 5 points to put the Blaze back in contention.  However Killie could not keep up the challenge as Edinburgh ended up taking the set 25-20.

Despite the momentum that Edinburgh carried through to the 3rd set, Kilmarnock managed to go point for point with the reigning champions throughout the set.  Neither team managed to put together a run of points to take charge in the set, which led to both teams having set points.  In the end it was Killie who took the set 29-27, with captain Gordon Welsh finishing off with a couple of clever hits.

Kilmarnock were ahead from the start in the forth set, with Euan Duncan putting in a run of serves to give his team an early lead that they would never let slip.  Despite a late run of points from Edinburgh, the advantage built earlier in the set was to big to come back from, and in the end, Stuart Edgar finished the set 25-16, giving Killie a 3-1 victory.

Stewart Caldwell

KVC Press Officer