Loughborough Students 3 v Warwick Riga, NL Division 2, 12th January 2002
Loughborough Students 3 0 Warwick Riga 3 (17-25, 23-25, 23-25)
| The Riga girls are relishing their KO cup encounter with Malory, the top women’s team in the country, this weekend at St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre after defeating Loughborough University last Sunday in a convincing 3 sets win. After a disastrous finish to the first half of the season, losing their unbeaten record to Wolverhampton before Christmas, the team had to pick themselves up, banish all self doubt and go out fighting. | ||
| Coach Tom Young had programmed extra training over the last fortnight to ensure his team were fully prepared mentally and physically for Loughborough, a team who should never be underestimated, their base being a centre of excellence for Volleyball, boasting three women’s teams in Divisions 1 and 2. | ||
| Assistant Coach, Andy Collins, was in the driving seat as Young was playing in the quarter finals of the men’s KO Cup. The first set was closely contested mainly due to mistakes on Riga’s part. No sooner had Riga gained advantage with powerful hitting from Captain, Rachael McCarthy and Dawn Woolmer through the middle attack then the serve would be back with Loughborough as each time the Warwick girls failed to capitalise by netting serve after serve. In frustration Collins called a time out and stressed the need for composure and concentration in order to cut out the unforced errors. |
 Andy Collins |
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| The girls took heed and regrouped and started to pull away at the 17 all point. Long fiercely contested rallies went Riga’s way as they scrambled balls on back court, Lynette Purkis being the main player, with McCarthy consistently finding the floor on Loughborough's side with some of her best hitting this season. Loughborough didn’t get a look in after that as the set finished 25 - 17. | ||
| Despite the confident end to the first set, Riga started the second badly and again found themselves behind. They pulled back to 15 -15 at which point disaster struck as a tight ball on the net resulting in collision between the Loughborough setter and Riga’s big middle hitter, Sarah Pochin. The Riga player collapsed clutching her ankle signalling the end of her match. Emma Wood was brought on as substitute, herself just recovered from injury. The situation looked bleak for Riga. But then, setter, Liz Young, served effectively to get her team back in the lead at 18 - 16. Within minutes, after another Riga collapse as both McCarthy and Cadoni netted simple balls and the defence went to pieces, Collins found himself calling a time out at 21 - 18 down. Tempers were getting frayed amongst the Riga contingent and Collins tried to calm his team down and regain some focus. Again the time out did the trick with McCarthy burying the next ball deep into the Loughborough court and Peryer producing a crucial block to stifle the Loughborough attack. At 23 - 23 Riga held their nerve and finished off the rallies to lead by 2 sets. | ||
| Riga needed another ‘Get out of jail card’ in the third set as Loughborough were not going to give up that easily. The rallies were tight throughout and the set went point for point. Concentration was lacking at first in the Riga camp as the serving went awry, again points were lost through Riga errors not Loughborough winners. One rotation resulted in a loss of 4 points for the Warwick team and they found themselves potentially facing a fourth set at 16 - 21 down. Andy Collins got his team together for what he hoped was one last time to give them that much needed boost. It worked! Riga gained side out and from there everything went right for the Warwick girls. Woolmer got some crucial wipe offs through the middle and again McCarthy was awesome through the outside attack. The work rate increased ten fold and Riga sailed to 23 - 21. Loughborough were not finished yet and retaliated grabbing 2 points. A marathon rally culminated in an intelligent play from Dawn Woolmer finding the gap with a tactical block. The Captain served at match point and Cadoni attacked the return sending half the Loughborough team scrambling to get the ball to no avail and Riga rejoiced. | ||
Rachel McCarthy |
"We’re back on
track now" said McCarthy, who was easily player of the match, "..we’ve put
Wolverhampton behind us and are looking forward to the Malory game on
Saturday when we hope to move our game to another level". They meet Wolverhampton on the Sunday after the Malory game, again at home, "This is a game we have got to win..." said Coach Tom Young "..if we are to be in with a chance of promotion, as well as settle some old scores". |
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| Riga still remain second to unbeaten Dulwich in the league whom they meet on Sunday 10th February. | ||