The girls who won the Glasgow Schools League last year having won all their games and the playoff final knew that their performances would have to dramatically improve were they to do well in the Scottish Schools Cup. The team started their fixtures back in October and won both their group games with some fine performances against St Thomas Aquinas and Bishopbriggs. The team was largely the same as last year's league winning team but were strengthened by Abbey Hart who was called up from S1. She went on and played consistently well at Wing Defence for the team throughout the year despite this being a new position for her. After the group wins the girls went on to the Gold Cup which involves all the league winners from the various areas across Scotland, a massive achievement in itself for the smallest school in the competition. The girls went through to the 3rd round against Berwickshire unfortunately missing Alison Blain GA through injury. That meant a late call up for Millie Soutar from S1. Millie had only played 2 games as Goal Shooter for S1 but had shown good progress in this position but hadn't played with this team before. She was asked to come in and she excelled here for the Scottish Cup game against Berwickshire, this resulted in her starting at this position for the remainder of the fixtures allowing Seona Macleod to play at her preferred choice of Goal Attack. In the game against Berwickshire the girls put in a solid performance with captain Annabel MacDonald at Centre and Seona Macleod at Goal Attack on fire for the team. After beating Berwickshire in the 3rd round the team progressed to the quarter finals.
In the quarter finals against Strathallan the team did not play well and were very fortunate to win. It was thanks largely due to Annabel coming off her sick bed to play at Centre for the team having not been well or in school the days before the game and clearly suffering during the match. Iona Cochrane playing her best game ever at GK that kept the girls in the game with lots of blocks and interceptions during the game. When GS Millie Soutar eventually received the ball she scored the majority of her shots and this kept the girls narrowly ahead for the majority of the game and this continued to the final whistle where they won by a single point. This was a lesson for the girls, passing wasn't finding it's marker, movement wasn't effective as it has been but they did show great character to keep fighting for the win and progress to the semi finals.
Despite losing in the semi finals the girls played their best netball in this game. They were up a much more experienced team with the majority of their squad in clubs and a number of their starting team playing for Edinburgh District Select but the girls played their absolute best to match their opponents as best they could throughout this fast paced encounter. Eilidh Michie was brilliant in this game at GD, she never gave up although up against probably the best shooter in the whole competition. Annabel MacDonald again put in an exceptional performance at Centre coming up against a very good opponent. Seona Macleod and Millie Soutar played excellent at GA and GS respectively. Iona GK, Abbey WD, Anna WA/WD and Sileas WA all had their best performances of the year, raising their games for the occasion. The girls and Mr MacCorquodale learnt a lot from this game and were very pleased with the performance. A big congratulations to Craigmount for winning the game and this years competition.
Many, many positives to take away from this year, most notably the team performance together, the way the girls got the best out of themselves and played as a unit has been impressive throughout the year. With only one club player in the team, I'm hoping some of the girls will be motivated to go on and join their nearest club. The girls have put the school on the map, most schools hadn't even heard of our school before playing us and were impressed when we said we only had 50 girls from S1/2 to select from and no full sized court at home to train on. I'm looking forward to seeing how the team develops over the next few years. The girls should be very, very proud to get into the final 4 of the Scottish Cup. This is the best team performance the school has ever had in any team sport! Absolutely sensational from our girls,
