This weekend Riga mens 2nd team were travelling south to face New Forest Southampton in a must win game with both teams yet to have a win this season. In fact Riga haven't had a win since setter and captain Steve Price joined the club 18 months ago!
The day didn't start well with an already depleted squad of 7 becoming just 6 as Bobdan phoned in sick. This meant setter Bart had to quickly adapt to play through middle. Despite the setbacks Riga started well and were level pegging with New Forest to 8-8. A lapse in concentration allowed New Forest to pull away and Riga found themselves 17-14 down. Riga pushed on determined and at 19-20 down Steve took over the serving and served out the match 25-20.
The second set didn't go quite to plan. At 9-13 down coach Alex called a time out and urged the team to focus on its passing. Riga pulled it back to 17-18. Sadly the team couldn't quite match New Forest and the set slipped away 20-25.
In the third set the team started to find its form. Some excellent attacking by Chris Jones though 4 and some good passing meant Steve could find Rennee Kricke through the middle. The team were soon 15-10 up. Some confusion in the passing unit saw New Forest start to get close before rigs put their foot down and pulled away. An ace from Tom Young on set point saw Riga take the set 25 -18.
So it's just one set standing between the team and its first victory in 18 months. Bart's tremendous service run saw the team 6-0 up and forced New Forest into a time out. Which worked as Bart then served in the net! Some effective back court hitting from Pavel saw Riga push on to take the final set and the match 25-21. So the curse of Steve has finally been broken!
Next week Riga men's 2 face Newmarket in the cup.
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