Drumshanbo burst to life with a feast of games

A huge number of new players made their debut as Drumshanbo VS played their opening matches in the National Championships at senior A and B boys and Senior C girls.

The senior girls were first out and made a perfect start. They beat Roscommon Community College (national cadette C champions 2019) and Ballymahon VS. They followed in round 2 by beating Elphin A and B (national Senior C champions 2020) with an enlarged squad and came from behind against Elphin A in a high standard game.

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Scores: Drumshanbo beat: Roscommon 25-15 15-25 25-11, Ballymahon 25-12 26-24, Elphin A 21-25 25-21 25-19, Elphin B 25-8 25-16

Panel (Serves in brackets): Aimee Flynn (8), Alannah O’Dowd (31),Caiomhe Schusterovi Alvarez (32), Aoife Nolan (43), Lisa McGovern (27), Hannah McLoughlin (20), Alicia Barrioneuvo Aguilar (8), Camilla Torrenti Marotti (7), Marie Blumentritt (3), Gemma Rodiguez (2), Ellen Kenny (11)

Next up were the Senior A boys who travelled to Dublin for the top 8 league. They will definitely have mixed feelings. They played superbly at times but definitely should have won their second match.

Drumshanbo beat Elphin CC 25-18 25-10

Last year Drumshanbo failed to beat Elphin at any level in boys in five competitions and experienced their worst ever defeat to Elphin in the National senior A semi-final. Here it was all reversed and Drumshanbo played top class in the second set with Adam Casey, captain, and Darragh O’Loughlin starring particularly on serve.

The Drumshanbo VS B boys Volleyball panel pictured after their win against Ballymahon VS

Sutton Park Dublin beat Drumshanbo 20-25, 25-22, 15-11

This was an epic match although Drumshanbo will maybe forget the good part. In the first set, Drumshanbo were leading 8-7, when Sutton unleashed a fabulous run of float serves that caused havoc and left Drumshanbo trailing 8-14. Then Drumshanbo played as good as any Drumshanbo team ever!

Manager Shane Hegarty put on two subs Cian McCormack and Jack Keaney. McCormack got to every dropping ball for the rest of the set and Sutton couldn’t find any gaps. Keaney, in his first ever major game, hit his trademark powerful spikes and put Sutton under continuous pressure and turned the tables with top class serves.

But that was not all. They raced ahead 12-2 in the second set. Padraig Keane set the tone with very strong serves. McCormack continued on form at the back while Cian Dennis set up Cormac Rynn for his net dominance. Ruairí Grier, as he did though all three matches, absorbed the hardest of serves and started most of Drumshanbo’s counter attacks.

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Then suddenly Drumshanbo got tired. Errors crept in. Sutton levelled at 18-18 and the tide had turned. Darragh Lee and Jason Lynch played well, both hitting winners, when they came on, but failed to turn the tide. The shock left Drumshanbo unprepared to recover in the final set. 

Sutton have been getting better and better each year and were favourites to beat Drumshanbo in cadette and Senior last year. Finally, their day came. This was Drumshanbo’s first lost to a Leinster school in Senior A in 11 years.

Patrician Carrickmacross beat Drumshanbo 25-19 25-19

Drumshanbo had a great game again against the championship favourites Carrick. Their high jumping players, mostly of Filipino origin, were spectacular, but Keane, O’Loughlin and the experienced Karl Winters all got past them to come from 5-9 down to level at 13-13 . Carrick went ahead 17-13 and although Drumshanbo got the next 2 points , they could not catch up.

Drumshanbo led 3-0 in the second set but Carrick, one set up, gambled on raw power and although they missed many, they never let Drumshanbo settle despite the introduction of Conor Mcloughlin, Dean Cornyn and Aidan Dowler.

Panel (Serves in brackets): Adam Casey, captain (11), Daniel O’Loughlin (11), Cian McCormack (8), Jack Keaney (6), Padraig Keane (11), Cian Dennis (6), Cormac Rynn (10), Ruairí Grier (libero), Darragh Lee, Jason Lynch, Karl Winters (9), Conor Mcloughlin and Aidan Dowler

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Finally, after an absence of seven years, Drumshanbo had also a Senior B Boys side and had a very successful day in Ballinagare. 

Drumshanbo boys played their first Sligo and Donegal schools back in the 1980s, Roscommon, and Fermanagh teams in the noughties, their first Cavan teams in the early 2010s and finally, for the first time ever, played a match against the last remaining county bordering Leitrim: Longford.

Drumshanbo B beat Ballymahon A 25-11 24-26 15-4

Drumshanbo started this match with three very experienced players from cadette teams of the last few years - Nathan Mahon, Jason lynch and Dean Cornyn along with debut Colm Dwyer. They overpowered Ballymahon.

In the second set, manager Shane Hegarty introduced a host of players for their first ever inter school match. So, both sides were the same which gave a thriller of a second set. Drumshanbo started the 3rd set like the first and won well.

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Drumshanbo B beat Elphin B 25-11 25-10. Ballymahon A went on to beat Elphin B scoring their very first win in volleyball.

Drumshanbo B panel: Cornyn (11), Dwyer (17), Lynch (7), Mahon (11), Nicolas Marquez (17), Gonzalez Marco de Castro (4), Cian Leith Gorani (5), Fionn Gilrane (10), Callum O’Rourke (7), Eoghan Rynn (6), Cathal Kenny (7), Éanna McNamara (4)