| NVL Division Three 19 October 2008 Venue: St Nicks, Warwick Riga 1 Portsmouth 3 (22:25, 20:25, 25:23, 23:25 ) |
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Report written by Peter Krusche |
| M2 had their first home match this Sunday, playing a cup match against Portsmouth. Although not an NVL team yet, Portsmouth have done really well in their local league and proved really tough opposition. After a good start for Riga, Portsmouth started to catch up and were able to turn the first set around with excellent serving and covering. Despite efforts by Riga to recover from their mid-set low, the set went to Portsmouth with 22:25. The second set started badly with severe troubles in serve-reception which cost an initial 10 points, after which things improved, but alas not enough to turn the set around. The third set brought forward a change in the lineup, switching to a single setter system with Steve setting, as well as a change in strategy involving an imaginary headstart of twelve points for the other team. This attempt to turn the team's weakness of only playing well when being behind into a strength worked out well, and M2 were able to win the set thanks to Tom's excellent serves and good outside hits by Chris and Tom. Excellent middle blocking from Peter further destabilized Portsmouth's hitting, and Riga hung in to win the third set. Unfortunately, M2 were not able to keep up the good standard in reception in the fourth set, which made life hard for Steve, and Portsmouth showed better endurance and narrowly edged the game in a close fourth set. On a brighter note, by losing this game, M2 have avoided having to play Bristol 1, and are looking forward to playing more winnable games in the Shield competition. |
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