Report written by Dan Turnbull

Riga welcomed London Lynx to the Alan Higgs Centre on Saturday looking to avenge the 3-2 defeat suffered in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

A fairly even start saw both sides trading side outs right up to 11-10 Riga, before Riga began building a lead forcing Lynx into a timeout at 16-12.  It was during this timeout that coach Tom Young instructed his blockers to change tact, a decision that paid immediate dividends with ‘kiwi’ Chris Anderson producing two consecutive blocks on Lynx’s outside player.  In a bid to get back themselves back into the set Lynx made a double substitution at 19-13, but a run of serves from John Gilling took Riga to the brink of the first set (24-14).  Riga took the first set 25-16 siding out at the second of asking.

Riga got of to a flyer in the second set, with great service pressure from Phil Wyles coupled with consecutive blocks from Dan Turnbull, Lynx struggled to even get the ball back onto the Riga side of the net. In next to no time Riga found themselves 10-2 up.  Libero Luca Molinari was having a great game both in defence and as part of the service receive unit, providing Wyles with consistently good ball, allowing the Riga setter to run all his attacking options.  At 22-12 coach Young introduced Manuele Monti to the match who needed no time at all getting up to match speed, connecting almost straight away with Wyles for the quick attack.  A few minutes / points later the teams were changing ends with Riga 2 sets up.

Despite being third in the league, Riga had so far only won one league match this season 3-0.  So despite being in complete control were wary of the fact that a performance anything less than that shown in the first 2 sets could see the match prolonged.  In a similar pattern to the first set both teams exchanged points early on before Riga made the break.  Another service run from Wyles took the score from 11-9 to 14-9 and with it the set, and the match, was effectively over.  Riga finally taking the set 25-14, sweet revenge against the team that inflicted Riga’s first defeat of the season back in October.

MVP for Riga was awarded to Dan Turnbull.

Riga Squad: Chris A (UK), Chris A (NZ), Kees, John, Dan, Phil W, Manuele, Luca, Tomasz

Coach: Tom Young