The Riga ladies braved the roads once again today. Fortunately the journey was not as harassed as it was yesterday to Swiss Cottage where the team was stressed out by the traffic. After arriving at Viccy Hall, Loughborough in good time, the team should have been relaxed and focussed on the game. However the first set did not go as planned.

L’boro took the first serve and Riga opted for the best side of the court to avoid being dazzled by the sun through the open (and closed) windows. After loosing the first rally Riga sided out and set-to to earn some points, but ended up trading point for point for the first half of the set. L’boro started to claim small runs of 3 & 4 points each serve rotation and gained good lead that forced Riga’s heads down. Serving errors on Riga’s side added to the easy Lboro win of the first set.
At the change of end, coaches Tom & Kiwi gave the girls a roasting, ordered them to pull their heads up and stop feeling sorry for themselves. To see if the ticking off worked, the girls headed back on to court to face the music. Not a good start, first serve out and gave L’boro another cheap point. Again each team traded points for the first half of the set then Riga started to put pressure on the serve and scored 6 & 5 points on Juliane’s and Lisa’s serves to finish the set.
With renewed energy the Riga first side out gave Lisa the ball again to do damage with her serve, and suddenly we were 8:1 up with a good head start. A good job too, after another couple of serving errors, out of position back court covering and blocking allowed L’boro back in the game, closing the score to 9:13. L’boro’s time outs and substitutions did little to help out. Riga finished the set 25:18

The sun had dissipated by now which evened the sides of the court out, thankfully as Riga were back on the sunny side. A gradual growth of points to Riga gave them a slight head start. Some not so strong hits from the opposition and revised positioning back court by Julie & Celine gave some accurate first balls to the setter allowing good distribution to the hitters. Chloe, after settling into her role at 4 found the groove and gave L’boro trouble. Alex had a string of hits through 2 that also caused trouble towards the end of the set. At 19:9 Sophie had a couple of safe serves to keep the pressure on and Riga closed the set and match at 25:11. A battering in anyone’s books.

Looks like Riga re back on form to give pressure in the next match, look out Wessex in the next cup match. Date still to be confirmed…

MVP for Riga – Celine Haederli
MVP for Loughborough  - Melissa Clifford