Prosport NVL Division One, 13th March 2004
London Malory 2 Warwick Riga 3 (25-21 24-26 23-25 25-20 11-15)
| Warwick Riga men beat the national volleyball champions London Malory last Saturday in a thrilling five setter in London. The win ensures 2nd place for Riga as long as victory is secured in the final league match at home to Polonia this coming weekend. The win was the perfect preparation for the KO cup final in Guildford on 17 April against the same exceptionally tough opponents. | ||
| On Saturday Riga started with a slightly different line up against London Malory with Alex Radu, Andy Lynn and Kees de Hoogh as the outside hitters on court and Tom Spijkers as a substitute. The first set lead changed hands several times until Malory tightened up their all round play and took a few points lead towards the end of the set. Riga continued to attack the champions but could not close the gap or get to grips with the Londoners attack and Malory took the opener (21-25). | ||
| The Riga team started playing far better in the second set with more pressure on the serves and some excellent defence. Once again the lead kept changing hands but it was Riga who managed a small lead going in to the final stages only to see Malory level at 23 points all & place the set in the balance. After conceding a set point to Malory the Riga team scored the three final points of the set and turned a 24-23 deficit around in to a 24-26 set win after good blocking and hitting by Alex Radu and Andy Lynn. | ||
| This vital win gave the Riga boys a massive confidence injection & they battled point for point throughout the whole set with Malory. In front of a reasonably good sized crowd both teams produced some excellent volleyball & the set once again went right down to the wire with Riga holding their nerve to snatch it 25- 23.The whole team were playing out of their skins at this point but special mention has to go to young libero Matt Howe who was having an outstanding afternoon & setter Phil Wyles who was controlling the Riga attacks beautifully! |
Matt Howe: outstanding afternoon |
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| The fourth set started very well for the visitors but Malory have not dominated the National game for so long for nothing & came back with vengeance & opened a four point lead midway through the set which they never relinquished, setting up a mouth watering decider! | ||
| In a rapid fire fifth set, the visitors played their best volleyball of the evening & really took the attack to Malory, keeping as much pressure on their hosts as possible. This led to Riga turning round with a 3 point advantage which immediately became 4 after a service ace from captain Phil Wyles. With this cushion the Riga boys were able to play a side out game & secured a famous victory with a super point to finish --- a perfect ball in to setter Wyles, a super set & a thundering smash from De Hoogh that was never coming back! | ||
| The Riga boys were obviously delighted with this fantastic win & coach Tom Young had nothing but praise for his team,"This was a super display as a unit, we never lost focus or belief that we could finally break the Malory stranglehold & we just want to savour the feeling." Young went on to say that this will be a huge psychological boost before the Cup Final but also conceded that to repeat the performance will be even harder but his team will definitely give it their best on the big day! | ||
| The last game of the league season takes place on Saturday 27th March 04 at St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre, Warwick against more very difficult opponents Polonia, warm up 6pm, match start 6.30pm & all support would be greatly appreciated in this very important match for the home side. | ||
Tom Spijkers
| Both teams challenging for the League title; both challenging for the Cup: everything was set for a super game and nobody was disappointed. By next morning Malory felt that they hadn’t played well, had been rather up and down while Riga had produced a consistent game at a high standard based around Phil Wyles and John Gilling who seemed totally unflappable. No less a setter than Audrey Cooper praised Phil Wyles’ performance: "He had an excellent game and was technically very aware." With this platform, the rest of the Warwick side played very well and Kees De Hoogh was outstanding. |
Phil Wyles: excellent game |
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| This was another of those rare games where the losers outscore the winners (although only 108/107). It promises a wonderful final element to Finals Day in Guildford on 17th April. The result also ensures the league season will end in a climax when London Docklands entertain London Malory. Warwick still need to beat Polonia to be sure of second place. | ||
Douglas Barr-Hamilton
