The weekend promised to be an exciting one with the first of Riga’s double headers for the season. With a small squad and an ageing line up, playing twice in 2 days was always going to be a challenge, particularly seeing as both opposition teams were from London, the volleyball stronghold of the country.
The first match saw Riga face London Docklands, one of there biggest rivals, at Riga’s home venue, the Alan Higgs Centre. The match started slowly for Riga, taking 5 attempts to get on the scoresheet following a series of errors. Forced to take a time out at 10-5 down, coach Tom Young’s words of encouragement had there desired effect and Riga put on their own pressure with Chris Anderson and John Gilling stacking on 10 points from their turns at serve, opening up a 4 point lead. Docklands closed the gap to 2 points but consecutive Riga blocks from Manuale Monti and more pressure serving from Piotr Rybarczyk close out the first set 25-20.
The 2nd set swung back and forth but dominate attacking and blocking from Kees De Hoogh who was like an impenetrable wall saw Riga establish a comfortable lead in the middle part of the set. Captain Phil Wyles was having a very good game as setter, splitting the Docklands block on numerous occasions. Consistent passing and defence from Riga’s new libero, Leo Trench, enabled the attack to flow consistently and a smash from De Hoogh sealed the second set 25-20.
Varied attacking play by Riga and inconsistent passing from Docklands allowed Riga to pull away to 16-9 in the third set. Although a determined Docklands pulled back the lead, a kill from De Hoogh steadied the ship with Riga powering on take the third set and the match 25-17.
Sunday saw Riga head down to Whitchapel in London to face their bogey side of last season, London Lynx, who were eager to avenge the loss of their fellow London team of the previous day.
Supported by a small but vocal crowd, Lynx got off to the better start, with Riga suffering a case of the Sunday blues and having a notoriously slow start. With lots of unforced errors and sloppy general play, Riga were lucky to stay within a couple of points for the most of the set, finally losing it 23-25.
The loss of the first set seemed to kick-start Riga back into life. Intelligent hitting from Kees De Hoogh and Piotr Rybarczyk helped Riga pile on some early points. With Phil Wyles finding his range, the attack had no problems finding holes in Lynx’s defence. Leo Trench and Chris Anderson were to make some incredible pick ups between them which helped Riga close out what ended up being a very close set 27-25.
The lead in the third set went back and forth until a very impressive attack from Chris Anderson resulted in the Lynx team venting their frustrations verbally with a barrage of foul language at an innocent Riga coach, Tom Young, which led to Referee Steve Walton issuing 4 yellow cards. Quite a memorable way to celebrate his 500th match as an official! This dressing down effectively ended Lynx’s chances of staying in the game. Riga powered home to take the third set 25-18
and continued in the same vane to win the fourth and the match 25-18.
A consistent performance from Chris Anderson saw him awarded the MVP award for both matches. Riga also move to the top of the league table following the two wins. Let's hope they can stay there!
The first team's have a new system to ensure accurate match reporting. The officiating team takes notes on the game - Celine was first up taking notes of the men's game this weekend and her official live commentary can be read here - Celine's match commentary
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