(17/11/2001)
This was Riga’s first away match of the season, facing a team with not a particular strong track record. Riga had beaten them convincingly in a pre season friendly in September. However, the Bristol contingent had changed quite significantly since then as Riga soon discovered.
Riga took the first set fairly comfortably with some solid passing from libero, Lynette Purkis, enabling Liz Young to find the hitters with regularity. Complacency set in in and the Riga girls were 5 points down before they knew where they were. The tall Bristol setter caused havoc with the Riga defence with clever tips and fast low sets to her tall middle hitter who grounded the ball repeatedly.
Riga fought back in the third, leading all the way and looking confident of going the whole way with some strong penetrating serving and hitting. The fourth was nip and tuck up to 12 apiece until Bristol found their form in the middle again and pulled away. Riga were always chasing after that and missed their chances with some nervous play from their ‘bread and butter’ hitters resorting to ineffective volleys over the net which were lapped up by the Bristol back court.
At 9 - 4 up Riga were cruising in the fifth and then the back court collapsed under an onslaught of blistering serving from Bristol. Panic set in resulting in several unforced errors leading to a nail biting 14 - 14. Young served a winner to bring match point but euphoria was short lived when Bristol sided out with a pathetically easy volley catching the Riga front court flat footed. Captain Rachael McCarthy redeemed herself with a thundering counter attack down the Bristol side line leaving Woolmer to serve a ‘too close for comfort’ deep ball which landed bang on the line.
Coach Tom Young, heaving a huge sigh of relief, said “this was our closest match yet and was a real test of the team’s mettle and spirit - things have been pretty easy so far so we needed a tight one to keep us sharp”.