Following a comfortable home win against Reading, Riga women had to wait for 4 weeks before their next competitive game against Swiss Cottage on Saturday. Two weeks ago the team were ready to set off to their away game against Loughborough (27th September) to be called at the last minute and be told there was no where to play as the sports hall had been double booked. Very disappointed the girls continued to train and organised a friendly against Loughborough Dolphins in the week to try and get some match practice.

With new players and Alex Smith missing from the team it was always going to be a hard game against Swiss Cottage and their huge squad of players that travelled with them.

The first set started off scrappy with both teams’ obviously tight and this also resulted in missed serves from both sides. Strong hitting from Chloe Walkingshaw helped Riga. Both teams then began to settle down and trade points up to 9-7. Good serving from Swiss Cottage followed and Riga struggled to receive. A good service run from Celine Haederli backed up by good attacking forced Swiss Cottage to take a time out at 15 -12. Two more points from the serve forced Swiss Cottage to make a substitution changing their setter. Swiss cottage pulled back and unfortunately Riga made 3 errors and this forced Riga coach, Andy Collins to take a time out. Trading points again and with Riga pulling away slightly Swiss Cottage take their 2nd time out of the set. Riga then started to feel the pressure with both passing and hitting errors costing them dearly and Swiss Cottage took the first set 25 – 22.

Riga started the 2nd set well with Michele Peryer winning points at the net. Teams traded points to 4 -4. A few errors from Riga saw Swiss Cottage pull away to a 7 – 4 lead and made Andy Collins call a time out. Riga then faced good serving and a stronger all round attack from Swiss Cottage which saw Riga side out at 5 – 10, heads were starting to drop. The Swiss Cottage block then started to dominate the net making it hard for Riga to get through and score points. At 8 – 16 down Riga were forced to take their 2nd time out of the set. A service run from Lisa Purcell helped keep Riga in the set but with continued strong serving in return from Swiss Cottage they took the set 25 – 15.

Coach Collins tried a tactical change at the beginning of the 3rd to try and shuffle things up. The set started very much like the first two with both teams trading points; however Swiss Cottage looked the more confident team. Julie Bromell kept Riga in it with a run of passes off a strong serve. Riga tried to pull things together and good blocking from Michaela Maixnerova and Anna Wojdola lifted the team slightly but unfortunately by this time Swiss Cottage had got their game together and their serving, passing and attacking were just to much for Riga to handle. Riga couldn’t find an answer and Swiss Cottage went on to win the set 25-15.

MVP – Celine Haederli