NL Division 3E, 7th April 2002
Brentwood 3 Warwick Riga 2 1 (21-25 25-11 25-15 25-17)
Warwick Riga 2 0 Oxford Students 3 (14-25 8-25 18-25)
| Riga ladies second team travelled to Chelmsford on Sunday with a bare 6 players for their final league games of the season. The squad, on paper, is big but with 7 players unavailable due to holidays in exotic locations - it was left to Ana, Clare, Ruthie, Irene , Steph and Sarah to face Brentwood and Oxford. The first game against Brentwood started promisingly for Riga and we took the first set 25-21. The second set was much tighter and at 15-14 Brentwood pulled away with a series of strong serves. Riga faded away badly and couldn't recapture the form of the first set - the Essex team took the next 2 sets and Riga lost 3-1. We had genuine hopes of winning this game as we beat Brentwood easily at home so it was disappointing to lose so tamely. | |
| A rather tired squad then had to face up to promotion chasing Oxford University. The students started very brightly and raced into a 11-2 lead with a strong middle attack force dominating the play. Some tough talking at a Riga time out followed and the spirits soon lifted in the Riga camp. Clare was finding her range with some excellent sets and the Riga attackers of Ruthie, Ana , Irene and Steph were hitting some cracking shots. The Riga defensive play also improved hugely, with a series of great pick ups from Clare and Sarah and then Ruthie showed unbelievable commitment by diving head first into a bench - got the ball back into play and then lay rather still on the side of the court. A let was called and Ruthie recovered quickly; to play a series of winning shots. Oxford's superior skill then took over again and they took the set 25-14 and the second set 25-8. |
Ruthie- minus the bump on the head |
| The 3rd set was Riga's best and we matched Oxford point for point until 19-18. The students just pulled away to take the set 25-18 but it was encouraging for Riga to raise our game at the end. So the season ends with the team on just 3 wins and 2 very near misses with 15-13 defeats to Guildford and Chiltern in the 5th set. We'll use the summer to regroup - hopefully get some new players and start afresh next season. | |