NL Division 3E, 20th October 2002
Guildford 1
Warwick Riga II 3 (13-25 17-25 25-18 23-25)
UEA Norwich 0
Warwick Riga II 3 (19-25 24-26 15-25)
| Riga Ladies II made the long journey to Norwich on Sunday to play UEA and Guildford. |
| Having lost to Guildford in our opening match of the season, Riga were determined to make amends and they started the match in fine form. by taking the first two 2 sets 25-20 and 25-19 by playing some excellent volleyball. The passes were going right onto Ginny's and Clare's heads (saving them both from having to do too much running !!) and the hitters were simply superb, with Emma, Jayne and Penny consistently winning points. Coach Rob was also able to use all his players - again important as this team has many new faces. |
| Guildford were clearly rattled and made many changes for set 3 and Riga started to ease off slightly and unforced errors started to creep into our game. The Surrey team took the 3rd set 25 - 18 and so some tough talking followed for the Riga team as we started on the 4th set. We upped the volume - a really important attribute for this team as we don't play too well when it's quiet on court - and Rob made a number of telling substitutions as the match moved closer to to it's conclusion. |
| We found ourselves at 23-all and it was great Riga play that saw us win the final 2 points with Emma hitting the winning spike and we took the set 25-23 and the match by 3 sets to 1. This was our first ever win against Guildford and revenge for the very narrow 15-13 fifth set defeat that we suffered at their hands last season. |
| Next up was UEA and we experimented with Sarah playing as libero and with her feet firmly on the ground , she proceeded to hit several winning back court spikes. Steph and Irene were also starting to dominate the front court - with both players hitting lots of winnings shots. Ruthie was also settling in well to her of setter role and was volleying confidently to the hitters. We took the first set 25 -19 and again , the standard of volleyball was excellent |
| Then, in set 2, the depth of the Riga squad was severely tested. First Sarah then Jayne went off with ankle injuries and once again, Riga faced a tough struggle as Norwich picked up some amazing balls as they simply wouldn't give up. It was very close in set 2 as we reached 24-all (our favourite score) and then Riga just pulled ahead - 26-24. |
| Set 3 was Riga 's best of the game - Steph was dominating at the net and the quality of the first pass was good. Riga raced to victory - 25 15 and the match by 3 sets to 0. So, 2 wins on the same day - the first time ever the team have achieved back to back wins and this takes us up to 2nd in the league. |
| Our next games are on Sunday, November 10th at St. Nicholas Park |
| Sarah Halling |