Volleyball: North Lanarkshire Volleyball Club round-up.

Mar 11 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

BELLSHILL Cardinals volleyball side finished the season in style with a hard-fought win over Beacon of Aberdeen.

The Granite City side had to win to avoid relegation and started strongly, pinching the first set after saving a number of set points.

Bellshill upped their workrate, stabilising both their passing and defence which allowed man of the match, setter Billy Harris, to vary the attack and allow them to score consistently.

With Ross Allan dominating play at the net, Bellshill levelled.

Cardinals resumed this play in the next two sets, with accurate passing from Libero John Waters and clever hitting from Stevie Graham stretching their lead.

A flurry of power hits from middle-hitter David Anderson won the match and ended the season on a high note for the North Lanarkshire team.

NORTH Lanarkshire ladies were away to second-top City of Edinburgh in their final game of the season.

After a sticky first couple of points, North started to produce the same level of play that had been seen in the last few games and took a commanding lead into the first break at 8-3.

This pattern continued, and with North attacking strongly and blocking well, the score moved to 18-8 before injury forced their main hitter off.

Although replacement off-setter Kim Campbell worked hard, the change upset the balance and North lost 25-22.

Both sides contested the second set very keenly, with player of the match and captain Aileen Hall running the plays very successfully, but Edinburgh proved too strong and raced into a 2-0 lead.

North started the third set slowly and eventually crashed 25-13, losing 3-0 on sets.