London Docklands v Cleobury Mortimer, Women's National League Division
2, 29th
September 2002
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Riga’s start to the season was far from auspicious,
falling at the first fence, to rivals, Cleobury. Having beaten them
convincingly in a pre season tournament a few weeks previous, Riga were
confident of another positive result. However the Warwick girls were slow
out of the blocks in the first set and were down 5 - 0 before they knew it
prompting coach, Tom Young, to call a swift time out. |
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Riga’s performance was still stop, start with, at
times, strong penetrating hitting from Cadoni and McCarthy out wide, but
both failing to capitalise on opportunities at key points. At level
pegging 20 - 20, a glut of unforced errors gave Cleobury the advantage and
they served hard at the fragile Riga defence to claim the set. |
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Riga upped the ante in the second after some pointed
remarks from Young. Peryer came on for Keates to strengthen the front line
defence and immediately sided out with an excellent block. 6 footer Sarah
Pochin caused problems for Cleobury with some hard hitting in the middle,
backed up by Woolmer who was connecting with setter, Liz Young, time and
time again. |
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But again Riga lost concentration and allowed Cleobury
back in. Lynette Purkis came on for Captain, Rachael McCarthy, who had
struggled to find consistent form. Purkis passed effectively but still
failed to beat the Cleobury block. From looking like they had the set in
the bag, a despondent Riga went down 27 - 25. |
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Julie Bromell
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They raced ahead in the third, leading 14 - 6 at one
point, Cleobury tried to get back in but Riga had eventually got their act
together. McCarthy and Pochin served hard, resulting in loose returns that
Riga managed to consistently take advantage of. Dawn Woolmer put in an
excellent all round performance, as did Michelle Peryer whose defensive play
was superb. Making her debut as libero back court specialist, Julie Bromell
also made an effective contribution.
But Cleobury were not going down
without a fight. Renowned for their defence, they picked up some remarkable
balls. Riga had chances to go ahead but again outside attacks proved
ineffective and Cleobury’s blockers started to predict the middle ball,
making life difficult for Woolmer and Pochin. Riga had serve at 21 - 23 but
lost the rally as Cadoni tried to block a second touch which deflected out
of court. Cleobury served successfully for the match and their first victory
over Riga for a long time. |
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Tom Young was philosophic about the result ‘Cleobury
deserved to win. They went for everything and played as a team. Our girls
weren’t firing on all cylinders and we paid the price. It was difficult last
year going for so long unbeaten, the pressure really built up, so at least
we don’t have to deal with that again. But we have got to work on our mental
strength and deal with pressure during the game more effectively. However on
a positive note, there were some strong performances on the Riga side,
particularly from Dawn Woolmer and Liz Young.’ |
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Riga’s next match is against Loughborough Students at St
Nicholas Park Leisure Centre, Warwick. 2.00 pm warm up. |
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Liz Young |