U13 Irish Team Compete in Glasgow Youth

Ulster had 3 representatives in the U13 Irish team competing at the Glasgow Youth International. Paige Woods (Alpha), Rory Comer (Ballyclare) & Roisin McKenna (Alpha) all travelled with the team to Glasgow to compete in the Team event, comprising of teams from across the UK and Europe, and an individual event.

TEAM EVENT

Ireland were teamed in Group 1 with Glasgow and Skyfall (England). Up first against Glasgow the team came out firing on al cylinders taking the match 5-0 without dropping a set. Next up to see who topped the group was against the strong England team of Skyfall. after some tight 3 set matches the luck was on Skyfall's side who went on to take the match 5-0.

Coming second in the group qualified the team for the 3-4 position playoff against Scotland Select. Dylan Noble opened up the match in the boys singles took it to a 3rd set but his Scottish opponent won some key rallies in the latter stages of the game and took it 21-15. Sofra Flynn came out strong in the girls singles to level the match 1-1 after a great performance against Iona Muir. The Scottish select team took advantage in the doubles and Mixed events and took the remaining matches to win 4-1, giving Ireland a very good position of 4th.  

View results of the team match here- http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/team.aspx?id=1955A258-10A2-4369-B068-732E0507DF5D&team=2

INDIVIDUAL EVENT

With a big entry across all 5 events the BS, GS, BD, GD all were played in a group format before going into knockout stages. There were a number of wins within players groups There were a number of good wins in the group stages from all the Irish players in the singles events with Sofra Flynn progressing to the Semi Finals with a very good quarter final win over England's Lucy Brierley. It was a tough Semi Final against Scotland's Brooke Stalker with the Scot coming out on top 21-9, 21-16. A great Bronze Medal for Sofra!! 

11 Year Old Paige Woods teamed up with Sofra in the girls doubles and after winning their first 2 group match including an exciting 23-21 win in the 3rd set against Mari (Spain) & Meldrum (Scot) they lost out to the English number 3 seeds in 3 sets.  Rory Comber Teamed up with Karl McLoughlin and after winning their first group match against a Scottsh pair their just fell short against the 3rd seeds of Ou & Simpson from England. Rory partnered Roisin McKenna in the mixed doubles and after a slow first set against Short & McAllister from Scotland they nearly sneaked the 2nd set  but lost out 21-18.

For all results click here- http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=1A3A10B0-7E58-4FFB-8254-818E289ACB7A

A great experience for our younger players competing in an Event with a number of quality players from across Europe! Well done!!