National League Division 1, 7th December 2002, Wessex I v Warwick Riga
Wessex I 0
Warwick Riga 3 (23-25 19-25 21-25)
After the high of beating a very good Sheffield team on the Sunday, Riga’s
spirits were severely dampened when key player Tom Spijkers, badly twisted his
ankle in training resulting in him being out of action until the New Year so the
team travelled down to Bournemouth a little deflated after a 6 match unbeaten
run.
However, the game started very well with Riga opening a 4-5 point lead and
maintained this up until the end of the set when for some inexplicable reason, a
series of bad errors threw away the advantage to the extent Riga had to save 2
set points. A timeout towards the finale of the set did the trick and with
some excellent serving from Colin Paterson the set was secured 26-24
The second set started in a very similar fashion to the first with Riga opening
a good lead, the difference this time was the fact that this lead was never
surrendered and with some superb power hitting from De Hoogh and Gilling the set
was wrapped up 25-19
The third set was equally comfortable and with setter Phil Wyles
distributing the ball beautifully all over the court the set was comfortably
secured 25-20 and the team picked up a very satisfying victory against a very
young, talented team who should be a force to be reckoned with in the coming
years.
Afterwards, coach Tom Young, expressed his pleasure and relief by saying he
thought this match could have been extremely awkward but a marvellous team
spirit had proved the decisive factor in what was an exceptionally good win.
Tom Young