Kilmarnock Blaze played the league leaders, City of Glasgow Ragazzi at St Joseph's this week.  The match came at a good time for Kilmarnock, as they had won their last 3 matches.

The Blaze got off to a shaky start, as the passing unit struggled in the first few points, however the experienced Gordon Welsh soon regained his composure and started passing on the money, making it easy for, setter, Colin Giles to spread the play effectively, and after going into the first technical timeout 8-5 up, Kilmarnock never lost the lead for the rest of the set.  John Hollis finished the set, with some impressive hitting, to win 25-20.

Kilmarnock started slower in the second set, with the teams trading points until the first technical timeout, City of Glasgow going up 8-7.  The set stayed close up until after the second technical timeout, when Stuart Edgar put in a run of powerful jump serves to give Killie a lead that they would not give up, taking the set 25-23, Stewart Caldwell finishing the set with clever hitting.

The third set started similar to the second, Ragazzi taking a slender lead in the early stages.  However, due to a series of serving errors they managed to build on the lead, and in spite of some smart hitting from Euan Duncan, Killie could not claw back the deficit.  City of Glasgow eventually took the set 25-22.

After losing the last set, the Blaze came out in the fourth set with a much greater intensity, and stormed into a 16-8 lead.  After the technical timeout however, the intensity dropped again and Ragazzi came right back into the set.  It took a good run of blocking from Mark Lawson to give Killie the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.

Kilmarnock II were also in action against Su Ragazzi II, and comfortably won 5-0. 

It was a double success for Kilmarnock Volleyball Club this weekend, as they also raised £1377 at their fundraised on Saturday night, and we would like to thank everyone who came along to make it such a success.

Stewart Caldwell

KVC Press Officer