South Ayrshire II (0) v GI (5).  : (8-25, 12-25, 21-25, 16-25, 7-15)

Match 2 and GI just scrape a team together, again? Three of the troops having just arrived home from foreign trips were hopeful of having an easy ride and relying on others. Nothing is so easy with GI this season, Mags has now had to pull out for at least two weeks, so Nixie was forced into an early return to action and responsibility was shared.

We arrived at Prestwick to find the Gym freezing cold. This was switch-over weekend to the new school and thanks to the project planners, the heating and water was switched off - nice one! After our hosts found a portaloo, a relieved team were ready to commence.

A good start to the game from strong serving from Diane found us 9-1 up fairly quickly. Hilda and Nicola followed suit to close the first set out pretty comfortably 25-8.

The second was fairly similar. This time South got to grips with Diane and Hildas serve, but struggled to deal with Gil's, Sineads and Nicolas serving. The set was closed out 25-12 and the teams transition game was coming together quite nicely. All 5 hitters were getting involved and effective.

Then there was the third set! We had decided to save up our errors for this one. Well we have to get Malkie stressed out in at least one set - don't we? We rushed into an early 5-0 lead with a few aces from Gil's service game. The Ayrshire team then started recycling our serves and well it just went Pete Tong on our side as we started getting too creative. This was interspersed by good hitting from Nicola, but we still found ourselves at 17-17 late in the set. Time-out called and we got back to playing a simple game plan getting the ball to Nicola and Sinead and we edged the set from there, finishing it 25-21.

We started the 4th set strongly and were playing good volleyball, but South had heart and fight from their success from the 3rd set. It was 14-11 before we kicked in again, with the middle attack getting involved more. Hildas blocking game has upped a notch and was rewarded with a great kill block when she was all over South's number 8. We controlled the remainder of the set closing it out 25-16.

In the 5th Diane and Nixie swapped at middle and opposite. It finished 15-7 fairly routinely. Highlight of the set was Diane suddenly remembering she had to set at opposite and closing her eyes in hope as she overset for Nicola who reached high and rattled it down the line.

Much, much better this week from the troops with the attack much smoother. Nicola was heavily involved and had one of her best ever hitting games for the team as Gil and her clicked really well this week.