Drumshanbo cadettes frozen by Mountrath serve

If ever a game was determined by serve, this was it as Drumshanbo VS exited the Schools National Cadette B Semi-Finals at the hands of Mountrath Community School on a 25-8, 25-20, 25-18 scoreline. 

In the first set, one Mountrath player served 18 in a row, mostly aces. That decided the first set of last Friday’s Schools National Cadette B Boys semi-final.

In the second set Drumshanbo formed themselves much better and broke Mountrath serves numerous times. Despite trailing 3-5, they began to outplay their Laois opponents and finally went ahead on Dorian Wosniak’s serve, 9-8. 

Gonzalez Marenco de Castro hit a spiking winner and on his serve they led 11-9. 

Adam Gaffney began to set well and Daniel Regan was stretching everywhere and hitting all types of winners. Edward Clancy, their best server, was showing great reactions and Joshua Lynch was tipping down winners over the block. 

Despite this, although it made it very exciting, it was only level. It was level 9 times up to 18-18. Why was it only level with Drumshanbo playing the best? 

Because Drumshanbo were missing serve after serve throughout the set. 

Eventually Mountrath strung a lead 22-18, but without serve Drumshanbo couldn’t catch up and their dream of a final was lost. If missed serves didn’t count against a team, Drumshanbo would have won the second set 18-15 as their 10 missed serves would not have been gifts to the opposition. 

It was their first ever outing away from home for Drumshanbo B and it proved a bridge too far.

The third set saw five new players from Drumshanbo take on the same Mountrath players. Leo Dunne had the best run of serves of all. Brendan never missed a serve and had great handling. 

Mountrath’s super server was from the Ukraine. In this last set, Yurii Nadilnyi became the first Ukrainian to play volleyball for Drumshanbo. He never missed a serve and levelled the match at 9-9.

Perhaps rapping in front of the Ukrainian ambassador the previous Saturday night at the Irish/ Ukrainian concert in the Mayflower, gave him that extra confidence! 

Still, for a totally inexperienced bunch they did well to make the semi-final.

Panel: (serves in brackets): Edward Clancy (3), Adam Gaffney (1), Joshua Lynch (1), Daniel Regan (1), Dorian Wosniak (3), Gonzalez Marenco de Castro (4), Brendan Rynn (3), Patryk Orawiec (1), Leo Dunne (5), Yurii Nadilnyi (3), Conor McKeon. Absent: Kevin Faughnan, Tomás Gilboy, Isaac Gilhooly, Seán Nolan