It was to be a busy weekend for the Kilmarnock First team as they had their final league game against Troon on Saturday, and their Scottish Cup semi-final against Glasgow Mets on Sunday.

Although Kilmarnock never really hit top form against Troon, they did manage to win the match 3-1 which secured third place in the league.  However, all the plaudits on Saturday went to Kilmarnock II, who beat Dundee in their last league game to win the second division, and earn the right to promotion to the first division.

After the success of the seconds, it was the turn of the first team to have a major victory by beating Glasgow Mets and make it to the Scottish Cup Final.

The match couldn’t have started better for Kilmarnock. They dominated the early stages and thanks to a mix of strong attacking and solid defence, they found themselves in a commanding position in the first set.  An impressive run of serving from Stuart Edgar finished off the first set 25-21.

The second set was much closer, with neither team managing to pull out a strong lead.  After the second technical timeout, Mets went on a good run which put them 20-16 ahead.  Kilmarnock kept fighting for the set and managed to tie up the score at 23-23.  Both teams had set points, however it was the more experienced Kilmarnock team who came out on top 27-25.

Mets went into the third set with a new vigour, in the knowledge that Kilmarnock just needed one more set to secure a place in the final, and really started to attack the game.  This new attitude led Mets to taking the third and fourth sets 25-19, 25-22, taking the game into a deciding set.

Although Mets had all the momentum, the teams traded points until the change of ends.  A run of serves then took Mets to a 10-6 lead, after which Kilmarnock never got back into the set and Mets took it 15-9, giving them a ticket to the final.

Stewart Caldwell

KVC Press Officer