Spijkers: made way for Medina in 2nd set
Prosport NVL Division 1, 20th September 2003
Warwick Riga 3 Sheffield 1 (18-25 27-25 25-15 25-19)
| Warwick Riga men raised their game significantly from their previous outing to beat Sheffield who, at the start of the day were top of the table, in four sets. The home side did not particularly impress the crowd in the first set with the most attractive volleyball to be seen at this level but from midway through the 2nd set the Riga boys began to find their rhythm and fluency, enabling everyone to see the potential that this team undoubtedly has & all members were able to contribute in a very good victory. | ||
| In the first set a very lethargic Riga team gave all the initiative to the young, talented team from Sheffield. The visitors seemed more eager to start well and Riga appeared somewhat slow in every aspect of the game which allowed Sheffield to open up a comfortable lead right from the start. Too many unforced hitting errors from the Warwick side of the net gave the initiative to Sheffield who themselves had no problem scoring past the slightly disorganised block of the home team. The visitors took an early lead which they never relinquished & coupled with the slack play from the home side won the set fairly comfortably, 18-25. | ||
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Spijkers: made way for Medina in 2nd set |
Riga started playing much better in the second set although managed to fritter away a small early advantage with some poor service reception. At 10 all Spaniard Alex Medina was introduced in to the Warwick attack for Tom Spijkers & straight away made a quick impact which allowed setter Phil Wyles the chance to start varying his sets & attacking patterns. This was to prove decisive as the young Sheffield team found it far more difficult to read the moves & therefore more difficult to set an effective block. The result of this was a huge swing in momentum which allowed Riga the opportunity to claw back a slight deficit & close out a very tight set 27-25. Securing this set was crucial & it was quite visible that the Riga boys were now brimming full of confidence & looking forward to the next set!. | |
| The loss of the second set seemed to have broken the resistance of the Sheffield team. In the third and fourth sets the young and very talented team from the North started making more mistakes brought upon by the build up of pressure being exerted by the much improved, quality play of the Riga team. The final 2 sets followed a very similar pattern with the home side etching out reasonably large leads with some much more disciplined play & then maintaining concentration to push home the advantage. In the end both sets were relatively comfortably won 25-15 and 25-19. | ||
| The large gap in the fourth set gave coach Tom Young the opportunity to play Chris Anderson for Andy Lynn and to bring back the familiar face from the past of setter Phil Hudson. Phil used to play for Riga in the late 1980s and is therefore not really regarded as one of the new players. Over the last few years he has kept himself fit playing for various teams in the North West but latterly Ellesmere Port who were new to National League last season and he has decided to combine his professional commitments in Warwickshire with a comeback this season. |
Hudson: finally made Division 1 debut after 20 years! |
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| The next game will be played at St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre on October 18th against Speedwell from Bristol. Warm up starts at 6pm & the match gets under way at 6.30pm,all spectators are welcome & entry is free. Coach Young hopes that his team will make it 3 wins out of 3 but have unfortunately said goodbye to their Spanish player, Alex Medina who has returned home to play semi professional volleyball with a view to going full time next year. Everyone from the Warwick side wish him well for the future but are disappointed about the departure of a quality player from their squad. | ||
| After the match coach Tom Young was pleased with the win. "Sheffield always play a good game and have lots of talented young volleyball players. Their game suits us in many ways as they always try to play a quality game with a high skill level. I’m puzzled about our slow start in the first set and we will have to avoid that in the coming weeks. I think that we showed our best play in the third set although we still have a lot of room for improvement & I would like to see us control the ball in to Phil in order that we can start to run a far greater range of combinations which will be of huge benefit to the team & the people watching. All in all this is a good win and we are slowly improving our game." | ||
Tom Spijkers