NVL Division Three Central
23 November 2008
Venue: Acacia Hall, Dartford
Riga 3 Dartford 1 (25-23; 25-23; 24-26; 25-19)
Riga 1 Ealing 3 (25-18; 25-21; 25-18)

Report written by Miriam Kay (with assistance from Jayne, Clare and Clare!!)

On Sunday Riga travelled to Dartford with a much depleted squad, illness and domestic commitments meant that the girls travelled down with a bare 7 players. None the less, some strong serving by middle player Miriam Kay and good defensive work from Amanda Dille kept the girls in front and Riga took the first set 25:23. Making a return from a cold, Jayne Warman came on in the second set and eventually found her form (now that she had her contact lenses in the right eyes!). With no off-setter, captain Virginia Rennie and Clare Francis needed to adapt their game and did well to provide consistent setting throughout. This helped the team to win the second set 25:23

In the third set the girls let their standards slip and despite strong hitting from Clare Walsh, good blocking from Ellie Beattie and some well-placed sets from Amanda (who was playing out of position), the girls lost the set 24:26. Determined to finish the game in the 4th set, Riga got off to a flying start. Despite being bottom of the table, Dartford fought hard with good team spirit, but Riga matched them point for point and eventually pulled ahead to win 25:19.

The MVP award was given to Miriam Kay for her all round outstanding performance.

The second game was bound to have a different flavour, as Ealing were the top of the league, and the girls faced some very stiff opposition. To begin with, the girls struggled to adapt to the change in pace. Ealing took advantage of this and ran away with the first set, winning 25:12. Riga came out fighting in the second set, with an incredible run of serves from Virginia, but the girls still could not match the pace of the opposition, and the set slipped away 17:25.

The third set was where things became interesting, due to some motivating influence from coach Rodney Barbour. Good blocking from both middle players and some fantastic hits from Jayne and Clare Walsh kept the scores level, and in a nail-bighting finish, the girls took the set 25:23. Playing out of position Clare Francis hit some powerful balls through four, and Virginia launched herself about the court to pick up some extremely hard balls. After a break in play, when Ealing’s rotation came into question, and despite a strong team effort, the girls couldn’t seal the deal, losing the fourth set 22:25.

MVP was awarded to Jayne after some incredible hitting down the line, which Ealing could not pick up.