Christmas came early for Cleobury as Riga gifted them their first win of the season and the home team’s first defeat.
The closely contested first set went Cleobury’s way with both sides producing a high caliber of volleyball. The difference was several unforced errors at key points. Marinella Cadoni was struggling to find her rhythm through the outside giving away some vital points.
Julie Bromell : dominated back-court
In the second set, Riga took control, executing some strong attacks. Cadoni was back on song supported well by Afandiyeva and Woolmer. Julie Bromell was dominating the back court defence with some excellent passing and retrievals. Cleobury were totally on the rack as Riga closed the set to 17.
Riga’s progress continued until half way through when the opposition got a surprise run of points and the previously subdued Cleobury found their voices again as the Riga heads went down. Easy balls were left to drop, arms were swinging wildly in panic and even two tactical time outs failed to stop the Cleobury onslaught and subsequent Riga collapse. Unfortunately Riga were missing their best blocker, Michelle Peryer, and if there was ever a time Young could have done with some options, it was now!Tom Young was gutted by his team’s performance against a below par Cleobury. "Everyone had a bad day today. The girls approached the game with the wrong attitude whereas Cleobury were up for it having lost two 5 setters. We need to go back to the drawing board and sort out our attitudes to training and matches. One match isn’t the season but it now means we can’t afford to lose any more games this side of Christmas. We also need to acquire a setter as we were limited with our attacking options today which was a weakness that a stronger team such as Cleobury clearly exposed."
The team has time to re-group before their next match away to Cambridge on 19th October.