Ladies beat Devon in five

Prosport NVL Division 2, 14th September 2003
Devon Ladies 2 Warwick Riga 3 (20-25 25-18 25-23 18-25 8-15)

The trek down to sunny Devon didn’t prove too arduous for the girls, many of which travelled down the night before to sample the evening delights of Exeter, staying at the University Halls (the cooked breakfast was awesome!).

Justine and Amanda

Devon Ladies were not to be underestimated having defeated Tonbridge last season and boasting two strong former Riga players, Justine Sutton and Amanda Squires. The pressure was all on Riga to perform and perform they did taking the first set convincingly 25–18. Rachael McCarthy made some excellent pick ups and was back to her old self having missed out on the latter half of last season with a niggling knee injury.
The second set unfortunately was a different story. Riga relaxed too much and their serving went awry giving the home side the chance to take the lead. Cadoni was subbed off for Sally Keates, as the Italian was struggling to get any rhythm with her hitting. Sally made an immediate impact with some effective line hitting but it just wasn’t enough to close the gap.

At the start of the third set, Riga struggled to turn their fortunes around and before they knew it were 8 points adrift of Devon and panic was setting in. Several unforced errors on service receive forced coach, Tom Young, to make some changes and brought Michelle Peryer on for Gulshan Ahmediyeva and Keates made a second appearance, this time for McCarthy. Marinella Cadoni was back on and seemed to have got her head together. Riga closed the massive gap and seemed to have regained control until a serving error at 23–23. Devon then closed out with an easy second ball dug over catching the Riga defence back on their heels. Young almost punched assistant coach Andy Collins in anger!

The same six went back on and were determined to level the match. Cadoni was inspired and combined with strong serving from setter, Liz Young, Riga got off to a 5–1 lead. The Italian hit some amazing balls at 4 which were knocking the Devon defence over like pins. The team gained confidence and Julie Bromell, Libero, took control of the back court and passed ball after ball into the setter. Woolmer played a stormer through the middle benefiting from non-pressured setting from Young.

Marinella Cadoni

Sarah Pochin

At 2 sets all Riga were in command. They turned around at 8–3 up and kept the pressure on. Sarah Pochin got some excellent blocks at key points and Devon had no chance of a come back. Riga closed the set and the match at 15–8 and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Tom Young said after the match ‘ the girls showed a lot of bottle and team spirit, it was good that we had a hard game as winning it gives the team a lot of confidence’. Its Mavericks (Malmesbury) this Sunday, which should be another win for Riga. Unfortunately they will be without their setter, Liz Young, who has been suffering with a knee injury for some time. She just managed to make it through the Devon game but now it looks like an operation is on the cards and is therefore out for the season. Tom is desperately trying to find a replacement.