Its got to be the signing of the season and possibly the biggest coup in the history of the Riga women's team, that is the acquisition of Turkish international and ex-Istanbul professional Yaprak Rogers. The 35 year-old 5ft 10 outside hitter has a wealth of international experience behind her yet since her arrival in this country 3 years ago has only played 'for fun' leaving the rigours of gruelling 24/7 training behind her. However, Tom got wind of this 'awesome' player living in Leicester, and a few phone calls and emails later, persuaded Yaprak to sample the delights of a training session a la Young and on Saturday she made an explosive debut against London Lynx.

Riga blew away the 4th placed London side with relative ease in 3 sets, 18, 18 and 19. The first point of the game stunned Lynx as Lisa set a cracking ball to 4 which Yaprak blasted onto the 3 metre line and this set the tone. Gulshan has responded well to the Turkish newcomer especially as she can speak the language in addition to her native Russian (and, get this, Yaprak knows Gulshan's old coach very well - small world eh?). The 6ft Russian off setter has really found her form this season with consistent powerful penetrating hitter, particularly from the back court. These two players present a formidable line up that most teams in the division will struggle to live with as Lynx discovered.

Its not all roses though as the team is plagued with injuries. Joining Liz, is Rachel suffering with similar knee problems and then there's Sarah Pochin and Marinella with niggling shoulder injuries. Hopefully Marinella will be fit for the Sheffield/Leeds double header in a few weeks and fingers crossed for Rachel. Sarah will probably not be playing again until the New Year.

England junior, Laura Hodgkinson, produced the best serving of the match, scoring a run of 6 awesome serves - she too is growing more confident with each match.

Lynx are a solid team with excellent defence and receive however Riga made them look ordinary with a text book display of hitting. Riga's defence is still a bit erratic, however, which Young will be working on over the next few weeks. He said after the match "Things are looking very positive. Having a player of Yaprak's stature has lifted the rest of the team and everyone seems very focussed on the ultimate goal of winning this division - we certainly have the players to do that!".

The girls meet Devon this weekend at home with the advantage of having beaten them first match of the season. Warm up starts at 2pm.