Warwick Riga men’s 1st team progressed to the semi final of the KO Cup for the third year in succession following a 3-2 win against Division 2 leaders Cambridge. The visitors played attractive volleyball of the highest standard and made life difficult for a Riga team who were not playing at their very best but still managed to secure a crucial victory. In the semi final the Warwick team will now meet Sheffield on Saturday 6 March.
In Saturdays match all started well for Riga as they took a 14-8 lead in the first set after some good blocking and attacking. Cambridge were still getting used to the speed of the game and made a large number of unforced errors which meant the first set was won by Riga by a relatively large margin (25-16) although the visitors were starting to side out quite effectively towards the end of the set.
The second set started off extremely well for Riga who held a 10–5 lead at one stage but for no real reason the home side completely lost focus on the job in hand & squandered their advantage allowing Cambridge to move ahead 12-10 & then to a score of 19-15 when Riga coach Tom Young intervened with a time out. Warwick lifted their game immediately and managed to claw a few points back to make it 22-23 but Cambridge held their nerve to secure the set 23-25 & the game was really on!
Coach Young : intervened with time-out
With the match level in sets the Warwick team looked fairly vulnerable at times and things did not start well in the third set either. The score throughout the set was very similar to the previous one and Riga were trailing 15-19 when Alex Radu came on as a substitute. His jump service saved the third set for Riga as he brought the score back to 19-20 at which point the whole team picked up the pace of the game & took a very important set 25–23 much to the home crowd’s relief !!!.
The visitors had far from given up and in the fourth set the difference between the two teams was not more than two points throughout the set however it was Riga who had the first match point at 24-23 but a big hit from De Hoogh went long over the sideline & Cambridge sensed they may just push it in to a decider! Riga gained another 3 match points but couldn’t convert any of them & Cambridge to their credit stuck at it & won the set eventually with some excellent backcourt play, coupled with some intelligent hitting at the net, score 29–31.
The fifth set saw the real character of the Warwick side who took the all important early control and established a lead of 8-4 at the turn round & hard as the visitors fought they could not close the gap in the final set. Riga had suddenly woken up & were playing well organised, disciplined volleyball which enabled them to secure a comfortable last victory at 15-10.
Coach Tom Young was very pleased with the win but not impressed with his own side’s game. "Cambridge played very good volleyball and in the end we won this match on our experience in the first division but we should never have been in such a position after the opening set & a half, we totally lost focus & all my players lost form at some point throughout the match", he said afterwards, "we’ll have to play at a much higher standard when we meet this team again next year. They will be a good addition to the first division."