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Opponents: Coventry & Warwick Riga 1 Competition: National League Division 1 Date: Saturday 31st January 2009 Venue: Bacon's College, Rotherhithe Result: W 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-22) |
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London Docklands Volleyball returned to winning ways at the weekend with an imposing display against old foes Coventry & Warwick Riga 1. After two defeats in Sheffield last weekend Ian Legrand's men were looking to get a crucial victory to ease their relegation fears whilst Riga were hoping to build their challenge for the runners up spot. During the week Docklands had made a major new signing by bringing back Great Britain international Yassir Sliti for his first Docklands appearance since 2001. In the time in between Sliti has played US College volleyball and professionally in Sweden, Holland and Bahrain. He has also represented England 41 times and GB 13. He joined his brother Mohammed on court for Docklands for the first time ever. Yassir may have produced a series of spectacular shots to drive Docklands forward, earning him Riga's vote for MVP, but his brother was equally impressive with a solid passing game and a wide variety of winning shots. Legrand said afterwards, "That was clearly a massive improvement on last weekend and although there were some obvious star performances today I thought the whole team played well and showed some real passion. Deciding on the man of the match was an extremely difficult task today as everyone played their part. The Sliti brothers seemed to be trying to outdo each other and scored some amazing points at critical times. However, for his control of the match and all round good game I gave my award to Alex Gaitan." The match hadn't started out that well for Docklands with Riga sneaking into a three point lead after some impressive kills by Daniel Turnbull and veteran Kees de Hoogh. Legrand called a time out at 13-10 down, reminding his players to be patient as they were competing well and just needed to show more discipline. Both sides then exchanged points with some thunderous blows but ominously for Riga, Yassir Sliti was starting to find his range. Also, a day after his 31st birthday, Matt Butterworth was enjoying playing against his old club and contributed two clinical winners to help keep Riga's lead in check. His middle partner Boris Halatchev then produced a run of deceptive serves that put pressure on Riga's passing unit and an ace and two Riga errors saw Docklands steal into the lead at 22-20. John Gilling responded for Riga but then two kills in a row by the Sliti brothers gave Docklands their first set point. Gaitan then scored a rare ace to take the set 25-21. Halatchev started the second set where he left off in the first with a run of serves that included one ace and saw three Riga hitting errors. Another Sliti brother double took Docklands 6-1 up and forced Riga coach Tom Young to take an early time out. Docklands remained in control and further kills by Halatchev and the Sliti brothers took the set away from Riga as the home side strolled to a 25-15 second set win. Set three proved to be a much tighter affair with neither side able to open up more than a two point advantage until a rare Riga defence error saw Docklands take a 19-16 lead. In eight attempts Riga have only won once at Bacon's College (in their first match there in January 2000) and their poor run was set to continue as kills by Alexis Blair and Yassir Sliti saw Docklands home 25-22. The win lifted
Docklands to seventh in the league and four points above the relegation
zone. They now have a weekend off before taking on London Polonia in the
KO cup quarter final on February 14th at Bacon's College. Docklands: Halatchev 4 kills (6 attempts), Bos 0 (0), Gaitan 2 (4), M Sliti 9 (22), Blair 6 (12), Y Sliti 17 (26), Butterworth 5 (9), Mills (Libero). Subs not used: Davies, Schaepertoens, Senatore. Riga:
Wyles 0 (1), De Hoogh 14 (25), Rybarczyk 2 (3), Gilling 1 (12), Dieudji
3 (8), Anderson 5 (17), Turnbull 5 (8), Trench (Libero). Sub not used:
Young. Black Knight: Alex Gaitan
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