Women's 1st team sees determination and team spirit win through.

NVL Division 1, 30 September 2007

Riga vs Wessex (Team Bath)

Myton School, Warwick

3-2 (26-24, 25-21, 17-25, 14-25, 15-7)

Match Report by Celine Haederli, Julie Bromell with contributions from Chris ‘kiwi’ Anderson

Firstly a massive thanks to Andy Collins and his so called ‘team bus’ for his help in getting the volleyball posts & ref stand to Myton School before the match began!

With Wessex fielding a line up that boasted a number of current GB indoor and beach-volleyball representatives, Warwick Riga started the match as firm underdogs. But what Riga lacked on paper they made up for with fierce determination and team spirit.

Both teams started with good service runs, notably Sally Keates and Julia Werdich of Warwick Riga’s team, countered by excellent serving from Helen Brown of Wessex. A late charge by Riga, with some solid spiking from Alex Smith, led to Riga snatching the set 26-24.

The second set followed a similar pattern, but some excellent defence from Riga libero Julie Bromell supported by Werdich and Celine Haederli helped nudge Riga in front during the middle of the set. Riga continued to build on this lead and closed the set 25-21.

A rearranged Wessex rotation which saw Vicky Palmer and Brown switching to hit through the left side helped them establish an early lead in the third set. Riga could not adjust to the Wessex changes and some excellent hitting from Shauna Mullen and Palmer enabled Wessex to pull away and win the set 25-17.

This forced coach Tom Young to change his line up for the fourth set.  New signing for 2007, Anna Meister started in place of Keates. This change failed to swing the momentum back to Riga.  Strong service runs from Palmer and Kerry Olding led Wessex to an easy set win 25-14.

Coaches Young and Chris ‘kiwi’ Anderson asked for three things from Riga going into the fifth and deciding set: energy, enthusiasm and belief.  Taking the court was a fired-up original line up.  Some excellent defensive play lead by solid blocking from Lisa Purcell and some strong transitional hitting from Haederli, Riga took an early lead.  They extended this lead through some superb serving from middle player, Michele Peryer who served 6 points in a row.  Riga closed out the set and the match with a comfortable 15-7 score line.

MVP for Riga was Alex Smith and for Wessex was Shauna Mullen.