It is with great sadness that this weekend we say goodbye to Raimonds Liepa who sadly passed away on Saturday.  Raimonds was our good friend, long time member, player, referee and supporter of Riga Volleyball Club over the yaer and will be truly missed by us all.  Some photos below of Ray's many years with Riga to remember all the good times with him by.

The regional ladies hosted NEST tonight in a re-arranged fixture. Riga came out of the blocks strongly and took the first set. But NEST fought back and it was neck and neck all the way through with one set even ending 32-30!!!  NEST eventually Came out winners 3-1.

Riga ladies hosted Loughborough Students this weekend in the National Shield Quarter Finals.  Having lost to Loughborough in the semi-finals for a number of years winning it was a game Riga wanted to win.  

With two NVL fixtures this Saturday there was plenty for Club members to come along and spectate and it was great to see some friendly faces. First up the ladies played Sunderland City Predators. The girls started strongly with good attacking from Sylwia and Alex. Jules ran a military passing unit giving Clare options but Sunderland fought back with strong serving and hitting and took the set 25-21.

Don't forget Tuesday 15th December sees the return of the annual xmas tournament! Everyone welcome from 7.30pm at Centre AT7. We will mix everyone up into teams and play each other to identify the Riga xmas champion! Afterwards festive food and drinks in the bar bring a contribution along! Merry Christmas!

The men had a very delayed start to their game last weekend in Manchester following the half term traffic on the M6 meaning delays and yet more delays.  This traffic paid its toll (mmm...perhaps we should have gone on the toll!) and Manchester won the game 3-0.  The women followed having had an equally tough journey and were faced with an equally tough game also losing 3.0.  Some pics of the men's team in action are below - click read more to view.

Riga mens team's first home game of the season saw them hosting Tendring.  Tendring were last year's shield winners and consistently finish high in the league.  They also have a volleyball scholarship programme with the local University so were likely to have new signings which would strengthen them further still.

This weekend Riga ladies hosted Nottingham Rockets.  It's always a tight game against the local rivals so was sure to be a good match for the first home game of the season.  It was to be a quiet game as Mim had lost her voice (although coach Jon sympathetically (!) quipped "no calling from Mim though - suppose that's the same as usual!").

The men hosted Solent this weekend in round 2 of the VE National Cup. Solent are also a division 1 team having been demoted from Super 8s last season so it was sure to be a tough game.

Riga ladies travelled up North for an away weekend for their first two games of the season. An early start and surprisingly for Jon all the team (well, barr Netti!) were waiting for him at the pick up point.