Volleyball Scots excel at Five Nations event
Scotland’s women’s and men’s volleyball teams excelled at the inaugural Five Nations tournament in Kettering, England, bringing back gold and silver medals, respectively.
In the combined competition the Scots took silver.
With Gibraltar pulling out the Scots women defeated Northern Ireland and Eire before seeing off the hosts to claim the Carol Russell Trophy.
Chasing the Dr Don Anthony Trophy the Scottish men overcame Northern Ireland and Eire but found England just too strong.
During the respective competitions Scotland handed debuts to Holly Scott, Antonina Porsch, Lauren Hislop, Jack Arnold, Daniel Przybylski, Ionnis Siovat and Cole Turnbull.
There was also a 50th cap for Carly Murray.
Women’s head coach Danny Traylor said: “We played at a high level all weekend, while also giving ourselves opportunities to develop the future talent we have in the squad. We hadn’t beaten England since 2017, so was a great achievement to beat them twice at the Five Nations Tournament! Huge give credit to Carly for reaching her 50th cap, her commitment to the programme while being a mum to Siena sets a great example to the young women in the programme on what they can achieve.”
Men’s coach Ally Jack said: “Whilst we were disappointed at our performance level in the final (v England), the players produced a performance that was statistically their best in a number of years against very high level opposition … very fine margins between winning and losing in international volleyball and the experience the squad gained will be invaluable.”
Scotland women – Alexis Crusey (Edinburgh Jets), Shona Fraser (CS Gym Volley), Jessica Burns, Rachel Morrison, Ellen Rankin, Anna Richardson, Holly Scott, Emma Waldie, Lisa Waldie (all City of Edinburgh), Raveen Gill, Laura McCready, captain, Carly Murray (all Su Ragazzi), Antonina Porsch (NUVOC), Lauren Hislop (Caledonia West).
Scotland men – Jack Arnold, Cameron Hook (both NUVOC), John Black, Liam Darling, Mark Cathro, Ewan Ramsay (all City of Edinburgh), Ewan Fraser, captain, (Essex Rebels), Jack McKelvey (Newcastle Knights), David Mexson (VC Lorentzweiler), Daniel Przyblyski (Dundee VC), Michail Siovas (University of Edinburgh), Ionnis Siovas, Harry Orr (both City of Glasgow Ragazzi), Cole Turnbull (University of Nottingham).
Photo credits: Simon Clarke, Kereen Marquis and Richad Beales.
