The first division men’s volleyball team from Warwick returned from the Christmas break with a convincing 3-1 away win against Sheffield. A determined Riga team won this difficult away match against a young talented Sheffield squad who are placed in the top half of the league. Following this win Riga maintain their ranking in the top three of the first division alongside big rivals London Malory and London Docklands.
The first set saw an excellent performance from the Riga team with setter Phil Wyles playing beautifully, distributing the ball to his hitters who in turn were scoring on virtually every attack. Few mistakes were being made on the Warwick side of the net and a small lead was gradually extended to the substantial margin of eight points by the end of the set (17-25). Coach Tom Young was delighted with this performance particularly after almost 3 weeks of inactivity.
The Warwick team started the second set in similar fashion and established a commanding lead of five points (9-14). Sheffield were playing very well at this stage of the match but the Riga team made very few mistakes and finished rallies convincingly. Towards the end of the set the Warwick team lost a little concentration & allowed Sheffield to chip away at their lead which meant a close finish to a set that should have been wrapped up far more easily - the net result was a tight finish at 25–23 to the Riga boys!
Phil Wyles: setting beautifully!
Sheffield profited from their strong finish of the previous set and cut out a lot of unforced errors from their own game whilst the Riga team on the other side of the net seemed in a downward spiral with setter Phil Wyles finding it more difficult to find his attackers who then decided to make unforced errors by hitting the ball out of court. The net result was that the Sheffield team had the upper hand from the beginning and established a comfortable 18-11 lead by the middle of the set. Riga started to re-organise after a couple of time outs / substitutions and gradually regained the initiative. They managed to bring the score back to 24-24 only for Sheffield to win the set 26-24 with an excellent combination attack followed up by a stuff block on the net.
The fourth set saw a far more determined Riga come out the blocks not keen to repeat the previous set’s performance and straight away they took the attack to a vastly improved Sheffield team. The upshot of this was an excellent set of volleyball with Riga always keeping their noses in front by 3-4 points but the visitors could never relax totally with such a tight margin. In the end the set was won 22-25 in a very entertaining set of volleyball.
Riga coach Tom Young was happy with the away win. “We played very well in the first two sets, and then gave Sheffield a chance to make it difficult for us” he said. “We only had two training sessions after the holidays and some of the players have only just returned from their Christmas break. We will get back to full fitness over the next few weeks and should be ready for the next Premier League encounter with London Malory and Docklands.” The first home match for the Riga team will be on 24 January against London Aquila. The second Premier League event will take place on Sunday 1 February at St. Nicholas Park Leisure Centre.