Prosport NVL Division 2, 27th September 2003
Cambridge I 3 Warwick Riga II 1 (26-24 16-25 25-20 25-20)
| Riga Ladies continued with their tough baptism in division two with an away fixture to top of the table Cambridge on Saturday. After a nervous league debut against a strong Salford team , the team was buoyed by a much better performance against Leeds which saw Riga take their first set in div 2. Good performances in training have increased the team's confidence and we were determined to continue with this improvement away to Cambridge. | ||
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Virginia : finding hitters with ease |
The first set was literally point for point- with both teams playing some excellent volleyball. Riga's starting 6 of Ginny, Jayne, Ruthie, Penny, Emma and Steph were playing really well and the first pass was going in well - allowing Ginny to find the hitters - who were promptly despatching the ball for winners. The set reached 24 all and Cambridge clearly rattled by the strong Riga performance just managed to pull away to take the set 26-24. | |
| Set 2 saw coach John making some changes - with Nettie, Clare and Sarah coming on , and the team powered in to an early lead , clearly boosted by their first set performance. Riga played easily their best volleyball of the season, the defensive structures finally working with everyone knowing exactly what area of the court they were covering. Cambridge just couldn't find any gaps as we were picking up everything - and then our hitters were putting away all the sets - resulting in Riga taking the set 25-16. | ||
| Set 3 started with Sharon coming on as off
setter and she immediately hit a series of winning spikes - Cambridge
responded by bringing on a very strong 4 hitter and the standard of
volleyball from both teams increased. This set was close all the way
through - but the extra power of the Cambridge attack saw them take the set
25 - 20. Riga raced into an early 6 point lead as the 4th set commenced - we were determined to take the match into a 5th set and the team made the mistake of starting to think about the next set before we had actually won the 4th. We kept our lead at 16-12 and then the Cambridge fight back started. They levelled the match 20-20 and disappointingly. Riga couldn't maintain their early momentum and we lost the set 25-20. |
Sharon Allen : On as off-setter |
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| So, some important learning points for the team - we easily played our best volleyball of the season against the league leaders but we have to be more ruthless in finishing off the sets - as this will enable us to start turning these close sets into winning performances. The team now has a welcome beak and our next game is sunday Oct 19th - at home to cleobury - warm up at 11.00 for an 11.30 start. Everyone very welcome. | ||
Sarah Halling
