It was a busy day in Craigie High School with both Dundee sides at home and with awkward games against tough opposition.  First up were the men needing to win handsomely to keep their slim hopes of top three finish alive.  They were up against a young, City of Edinburgh ll side that forced a 5^th set tiebreak in November with Dundee eventually the winners.  The home side started with energy and purpose opening up a 13/6 lead with Mike Coward and Colin McEvoy to the fore. The young Edinburgh side tried to force themselves into the game but winning 4 points and giving up 6 gave Dundee an 18/10 lead that they held onto with ease to win the set 25/15.  Jamie Salvin replaced Leo Maugeri and with the help of Louis Groshenry took the score to11/4 before a fight back from Edinburgh closed the gap to 19/13.  Dundee’s power at the net was too much for the young side and the set went to the home side 25/17.

More changes in the third set did not disturb the momentum and McEvoy, Coward and Mark Donnachie took the score to 9/3.  Edinburgh’s Mitchell Brown was there only bright spot as helped keep the visitors in the game but Oz Dowie and Mike Coward kept their side ahead scoring 18 points between them and with Barry Millar scoring a big ‘kill block’ to help seal the set 25/19 and a comfortable 3/0 win.  It was to all in vain as Lenzie won their game against Mets ll to consign Dundee to the bottom group play-offs.

The girls had a tough game facing them with Su Ragazzi ll the opposition.  Both sides traded points early in the first set then a run 6 points off the Natasha Melville service, including 3 aces took the score to 13/5.  Melville and Sarah Driscoll kept the score moving along but the Su side fought back with runs of 5, 3 and 4 points helped close the gap to 19/21 but 2 errors gave the set away as Dundee won the first set 25/23.  In the second set Lana Edgar was the star performer as she scored 5 points in the early part of the set with Dundee taking a 20/8 lead.  Agnes Bednarek made her team debut and hit three winners but an amazing run of serves from Ragazzi closed the gap to 20/18 but big hitting Sarah Driscoll hit the last 3 points to win the set 25/20.

The Glasgow side’s resistance was broken and in a game dominated by the serve it was Dundee who won 20 of their 75 points direct from service against only 6 from Ragazzi.  The home side also had control of the net and Dundee had 4 players all winning more than 10 points each as they finished off the set 25/12 to climb back into third place in Division l.

There are no games for two weeks due to holidays and a National Team practice weekend.  Both side play Scottish Cup games next against premier Division opposition later this month.