National League Division 1, 8th February 2003, Warwick Riga v Polonia Ealing
Warwick Riga 3 Polonia 0 (25-19 25-14 27-25)
Warwick Riga stabilised their third place in the Division 1 National Volleyball League with a 3-0 win over their traditional rivals Polonia London (25-19, 25-14, 27-25). The game in Warwick showed a high level of skill and ability from the Riga team in the first two sets but a more lacklustre display in the third set.
Warwick Riga started off in a very promising manner and took an early lead in the first set, Riga’s attack working exceptionally well with Kees de Hoogh and Alex Medina firing on the outside hits. Polonia managed to keep the deficit limited to a few points until the middle of the set when Riga started to control the game with some superb blocking at the net which completely nullified the potentially very dangerous Polonia attack. The main men at this point were John Gilling & Andy Elliot who was playing up from the second team but who played exceptionally well considering the lack of experience at the higher level. By the end of the set the gap had grown to 6 points (25-19).
The Riga team traditionally would have started the next set more complacently than they did on this occasion. However,this was not the case tonight and the team started to play some very slick volleyball and didn’t give Polonia the impression of slowing down. Setter Phil Wyles started to combine the middle and outside hitters far more effectively and the Warwick team created a large gap (21-9). Towards the end of the second set the old habit of complacency crept into Riga’s game which gave a number of easy points to their opponents and made the score look a little closer than it actually was in the set. Nonetheless, everyone watching could not have failed to be impressed with some of the excellent combination plays executed by the Riga team.
The complacent and lacklustre attitude with which the Riga team finished the second set remained with them for much of the third set too !! Polonia started to take their chances and took a lead of two points towards the middle of the set & coach Tom Young needed two time outs towards the end of the set to ensure that the game was wrapped up without the loss of a totally unnecessary set. With his team refocused on the job in hand,Riga regained their composure & forced Polonia into two crucial mistakes when the score was tied 25-25 and the third set went to Warwick Riga (27-25).
Afterwards, captain/coach Tom Young was left with slightly mixed emotions on the evenings performance. "We played very well in the first two sets, and then stopped to let Polonia into the match. I thought we’d stopped this bad old habit but obviously the team still needs to gain more experience in keeping the initiative when in control of a match," he said. "I’m very pleased how we beat a team that normally would cause us problems but the third set shows that we still have to learn a lot."
Riga’s next game is the quarter final of the national KO cup against Stoke on Saturday, 22nd of February, 6 pm warm-up for a 6.30 start. This promises to be a very tough match with both teams aiming to progress to the semi final stages of the cup & prove who is the number one team in the Midlands, a position Riga have held for the last few years.