NUVOC run close in Edinburgh tussle
Dundee’s ladies team travelled to Edinburgh for a League 1 game against NUVOC last Saturday with a much changed side from last week. Dundee University student Ruth Hernandez and Ting Yi Wong stepped in to help out and had an immediate impact with Wong setting for Sarah Driscoll to score 3 points to open up a 9/3 lead. Hannah Lawrie and Pauletta Talmon both scored to keep the home side at bay as they moved on to lead 15/8. The home side were struggling to find their rhythm. Their side was made up of students and from different countries and their links had not been strong enough in the early exchanges to threaten the Dundee defence. The familiar story of a tough server then caught up with the visitors as NUVOC scored two runs of point to close to 17/18. Talmon hit two more winners as Dundee lead 21/20. The serving curse struck again as the home side won the final four points after a service error gave a point to tie the scores at 21/21. NUVOC won the set 25/21.
Service again played a big part in the second set as NUVOC won 5 runs of three points with their service again stopping the Dundee attack being effective. The set went to NUVOC swiftly 25/14. The Dundee side switched their line-up in the third set and became more competitive and scores from Agnes Bednarek, Sarah Driscoll and Ruth Hernandez kept Dundee two points ahead and 17/15. The Hernandez service then forced the home side into mistakes and the scored moved to 21/17. Ting Wong, Driscoll and Talmon again scored big hits from the sides of the court to give Dundee a 24/21 lead. A service error gave Dundee the set 25/21.
Agnes Bednarek scored the first point of the fourth set and started a run of points for Dundee to take a 12/10 lead. Driscoll and Talmon again making life difficult for the home defence. Both sides then traded points with NUVOC up 19/18. Two points gave the home team a 21/18 lead but great defence and counter attacking mainly from Sarah Driscoll on the right side of the court as she scored 3 points in a row for Dundee to lead 23/21. With the set win in sight NUVOC spoiled the ‘party’ with two service aces and the final point in counter attack, to win 25/23, and the match 3 sets to 1.