National League Division 1, 16th March 2002
Polonia 3 Warwick Riga 1 (25-22 21-25 27-25 28-26)
Riga Men’s First team suffered another blow to their ambition to finish in second place in National League Division One with a nail-bitingly close defeat by Polonia on Saturday. The Londoners claimed a three-one victory by a slender three point overall margin in a match of the highest quality. However, Riga’s return to form did little to console captain Tom Young. "We’ve played better over the last two games than we did in the Cup semi-final but in close games like tonight’s, it’s about not making mistakes at the wrong times. We did and paid the price."
Young could easily have also identified not taking the chances to clinch sets as the reason for the loss. Certainly in the first set that was the case. Showing little sign of the aftermath of the previous weekend’s double defeat, Riga started the match with a flurry of points. Richard Meade, Tom Spijkers and some scintillating serving by John Gilling put the visitors ahead 15–12. From there the set should have been secured. Instead Polonia, shooting for a top four spot themselves, ate away at that lead by leaps and bounds. With Riga now struggling to respond, the home side clinched a comeback 25–22.
Set two opened brightly for Riga but Polonia’s response soon had the visitors in the shade. At 7–10 behind, a Riga timeout refocused efforts and partly thanks to loose play by the home side, Riga crept in front 14–13. In a nip and tuck finale, Kees de Hoogh, Young and Spijkers all shone to bedazzle their hosts. Fittingly de Hoogh equalised the sets with a second successive finish at 25–21.
The third set could not have been closer. Although Polonia held the early lead, Riga were quickly back snapping at their heels, Spijkers and Gilling the prime reasons. Despite playing the role of chaser in a game of catch-up, it was Riga to reach set point first, courtesy of fine work by Young and Spijkers. Now it was the turn of Polonia to respond and claim their own set point. Spijkers could save Riga’s bacon once but with the visitors’ pass suddenly fragile, compounded by a hitting error from second-set hero de Hoogh, Polonia triumphed 27–25.
Disappointed but unbowed, Riga set about making amends in the fourth set. Ahead 6–4 through Young and Gilling, they soon created and held a three point margin over their hosts. As the score climbed towards conclusion but the gap remained unchanged, a fifth set looked in prospect. However, a Polonia surge suddenly had the lead reduced to a point and despite Riga reaching set point ahead of their rivals, a net violation against Young denied them victory. Still Riga pressed ahead and twice more Polonia rescued the set. Then two mistakes in quick succession from de Hoogh and Spijkers ended Riga’s hopes, 28–26.
"This and the Docklands game last week are like two peas in a pod," said Young later. "Both were good games of volleyball, not much to choose between the teams, could have gone either way and yet neither went for us. We’ve nicked games like this in the past, so we can’t complain but winning just one of them right now would have made a hell of a difference to us."
With two games left, Young and his side know they now have to win both to stand any chance of taking an unprecedented second place in the table. Any one of four teams can now achieve that feat with Polonia, Docklands and Portsmouth all vying with Riga. Each of the sides has matches against their rivals, so the race is still wide open. Riga’s next test couldn’t come sooner or bigger than Portsmouth this Saturday at the St. Nicholas Park Leisure Centre, Warwick (6pm). The giant figure of ex-England international Marcus Russell will prove a formidable obstacle to Riga’s task that day and Young is under no illusions. "Russell is their key man. If you don’t get a hold of him, you’re in trouble. It’s a make-or-break match for us and there’s only one result on my mind."