On Sunday the second team ladies travelled to Norwich to play the league leaders. In the first set they were outplayed with Norwich coming out easy winners 25:16. The second set saw a turn for the worst and whatever combination coach Tomasz tried singularly failed to make any positive impact. The stupor on court saw the team loose the set by their biggest margin ever 25:9 !! The girls then decided that a 3 ½ hour journey was not to be in vain and at last began to fight. With Amya reverting to playing in the middle things began to look up. Jayne typified the extra competitiveness by totally loosing it with the line judge only to feel sheepish when she realised the referee had already overruled the decision!!. With Riga winning 25:24 Tomasz brought Emma on to serve (no pressure then). She rose to the challenge and with a confident serve Riga took the set 26:24.
But Norwich were not to be denied and some excellent middle hitting tested Riga’s defences to the full. Despite some great back court pick ups from Jayne and excellent serving from Anya, Norwich cane out winners 25:11 taking the match 3:1
In the second game the girls faced a Leicester team near the bottom of the league and found it hard to raise their game against an unorthodox and hard working team. Whether it was over confidence or the travelling we do not know but Riga lost the 1st set 25:23. The second set went much better and Riga stormed ahead to take the set 25-19.
The performance was variable in the third set and with Clare having to set from everywhere the attacking options were limited!! There was some strong defensive play from Nettie and Ellie finding her range at the net. With Penny serving strongly and Emma providing much needed support for a flagging old lady (Jayne). Despite Nettie trying to help Leicester out with a foot fault on her serve at set point the girls refused to give in a finally took the set 28:26.
The fourth set saw another down turn. Some determined play from Riga saw them meeting Leicester point for point, but this time, Leicester just came out on top and took the set 26-24. So it was into the 5th set and dogged determination won through. Despite changing ends at 5:8 down the girls finally took the set 15:13.
This was just before Jayne threw her strop at the line judge - is that in or out?! Penny negotiating with the ref to avoid Jayne getting a yellow card!
THE END!