(25/03/2001)
Riga ladies second team concluded their league programme with 2 matches against Oxford University and Camden. Oxford were out for revenge after Riga's recent victory over the student team and , in a poor performance, Riga went down 3 -0.
The second game was against Camden and the Riga team were really fired up and keen to end the season on a winning note. Riga raced into a 2 - 0 lead with excellent attacking play - Stephanie Geoffroy and Ruth Gillett dominated the net with a series of superb blocks and everyone contributed with a range of winning shots. True to form, Riga then eased off and Camden came right back in the match by winning the next 2 sets. Tough talking at the start of the fifth set coupled with a determination that we were not going to lose saw Riga take a lead in the deciding set and we were first to the change around at 8 -4 up. Camden started to make more mistakes as they couldn't cope with Riga's dominant play - and we were making a lot of noise which psyched Camden out !! It was left to captain Virginia Rennie to serve out for the set which Riga won 15-9 and the match 3 -2.
This win means the team have won 7 and lost 7 matches in their first season in the national league which is an excellent record and the team have finished 5th in their league- coach Sarah Halling said : " I'm delighted with our first season, everyone has contributed to our success and we've had some brilliant wins this year. Our form really picked up after Christmas with wins against Oxford and Norwich being the highlights of the season and we've done the club proud in our first season.