NVL Division One
21 and 22 February 2009
Venue: London and Coventry
Riga 3 London Lynx  0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-9)
Riga 3 City of Bristol 1 0 (25-23, 25-15, 25-21)

Report written by Dan Turnbull

2 matches and 2 three nil wins in a little over 2 hours saw Coventry & Warwick Riga M1 move from 5th place to 2nd in National League Division 1.

First up on Saturday was London Lynx.  An early finish to the women’s match meant Riga had nearly an hour to ‘warm-up’ for the official 16:30 warm-up.

An early service run from Piotr Rybarczyk, which included the first of a number of Riga service aces on the day, gave Riga a 6-1 advantage.  This lead was maintained through the middle part of the first set, before a one on one block roof block from John Giling stretched the lead to 16-10.  A couple of points later Giling served an ace of his own to make the score 18-11.  A brief fight back from Lynx saw the scores close to 18-14, then 19-15.  However kills from Rybarczyk at four, a Kees de Hoogh backcourt attack and Dan Turnbull’s one on one block against former Riga player Ed Ekanem moved Riga to 22-16.  Another de Hoogh attack wrapped the set up 25-18.

Another Rybarczyk ace early in set 2 ensured Riga kept the momentum gained from set 1. A deft second ball over from setter Phil Wyles took the score to 10-6, which he quickly followed by a service ace. A quick reverse attack from Turnbull, was followed by another quick attack, this time from Cedric Dieudji-Tchamdjou, after some great defence from Wyles and Chris Anderson (14-9).  Further kills from all of Riga’s attacking players helped move the score to 21-15, forcing Lynx into a second time-out.  Returning to court Lynx sided-out immediately (21-16) only to put their serve straight into the net (22-16).  Blocks from Dieudji-Tchamdjou and then de Hoogh bought set point which de Hoogh  quickly despatched.

From a solid passing / defensive platform led by libero Leo Trench, a good mix of power hitting and clever tips meant Riga ran away with the third set.  Throw in a couple more service aces from Wyles and Turnbull, along with a great ‘pancake’ pick -up from Hakim Aissaoui gave Riga match point.  A hitting error from Lynx sealed their fate as Riga took the set 25-9 and the match in only 59 minutes.

Lynx gave their MVP nomination to Phil Wyles.

Bristol were the visitors on Sunday and were looking to make something of the weekend having lost the previous day 3-0 to London Malory.  Riga however knew that if they were to win this game in hand they would be catapulted up the league from 5th to 2nd.

Bristol started the quicker of the two sides opening up a slender 3 point lead (5-2), loudly supported by their bench.  Riga responded and tied the scores at 6-6, clearly this game was going be far tougher than the previous days.  Despite not playing the flowing volleyball that had seen Riga brush aside Lynx the night before Riga continued to fight for every point and the score remained tight till 16-16.  Again it was a service run from Piotr Rybarczyk that gave Riga the advantage (19-16), despite levelling the scores at 20-20 and again at  23-23 Riga held on to take a tight set 25-23.

Slightly more relaxed, Riga took to the court, to receive serve, at the start of the second set.  Siding out straight away Riga began building a lead that Bristol would never peg back, with an 8 point lead having been already established with the score only at 12-4.  The finishing line was in sight as Riga comfortably took the second set 25-15.

Perhaps thinking the job was done and the match already won Riga relaxed a bit early at the start of set 3 and Bristol looked to get themselves back into the game.  At 14-8 down, the game looked to be heading to a forth set, which seemed even more likely when the score was 18-13 in favour of Bristol.  Riga managed to side-out and from that point on never looked back with a stunning run of volleyball.  With Dieudji-Tchamdjou at the service line Bristol eventually sided-out with the scores tied at 18-18.  At 19-19 Phil Wyles went back to serve which brought de Hoogh to the net who along side Turnbull and Anderson make up Riga’s tallest blocking line-up.  A series of blocks later from all 3 players meant Riga held match point (24-19), which they took at the third time of asking 25-21.

Bristol gave their MVP nomination to Piotr Rybarczyk.

Finally congratulations to Sheffield 1 who became National League Division 1 Champions for the first time in the clubs history on Saturday.