Leeds were the visitors to St Nicholas Park L.C. last weekend in the National Volleyball League Division 1 encounter & unfortunately whilst the match never quite scaled the heights of previous matches, Riga still had far too much class for their opponents from the North and secured a very comfortable 3–0 score line to maintain their title aspirations. Both sides had a number of players missing due to a combination of illness, injury & work commitments which meant opportunities for the squad members to impress & for Riga Chris Anderson had a steady game whilst Moldovan, Alex Radu really grabbed his chance with a very good debut performance in a match which never inspired the watching numbers. All in all this match resulted in a comfortable win for the Riga side.

de Hoogh: stood out from the crowd

The first set showed a Riga team keen to show their normal level of play and they achieved this for the early part of the set, quickly pulling out a 10 point lead which was never threatened and although the home side allowed a few soft points to slip the set was won very comfortably 25–17.

The second and third set followed a very similar pattern with quite a few mistakes on both sides of the net. Riga were quite obviously the stronger side overall and the one player who stood out above all others was Kees de Hoogh who carried on scoring many points by decisive attacks. The sets finished 25-21 and 25-20 and throughout the match Riga were never in danger of losing any sets.

Riga coach Tom Young was a little disappointed by the performance from his own side & the fact that his team had not been able to sustain the level of play and control that he demands, no matter who the opposition are, "I warned the team at the beginning of the match that it would be very difficult to sustain our level against a weakened side" he said, "and we obviously didn’t". "I’m of course pleased with the win but disappointed with the manner in which we achieved it although I would settle for 3–0 victories every week even without the performance!!", he finished.

The last match of this year will be played at St. Nicholas Park Sport Centre on Saturday 13 December against City of Salford. The men’s game will start at 5.30pm, and will be preceded by the women’s match at 2 pm between the two Riga teams who are both in National League Division 2 & promises to be a real cracker!