On the 13th of February, Riga made the trip down to the Tendring home gym to face off for the 3rd time this season. Riga started the match with the serve, but a perfect reception by Costa, followed by a butter set from Nick "Goldfingers" Davies would allow Mitchell Lawrence to take it to spike town, setting the tone for the match. Again and again Riga tried to pressure Costa with their loopy float serve, but like coal turning into a diamond, Costa continued to perfectly receive and allowed Mitchell Lawrence to detonate ball after ball to the dusty floor.
Seemingly doing it all, Lawrence would go back and serve an ace to send Tendring into the first technical timeout leading 8-2. Robert Chilcoat took to the service line and fired off 2 aces back to back to push Tendring further into the lead. Kills and wipe offs from Stuart Dovey followed by some spectacular defensive plays by the big man made clinical work of Riga and Tendring found themselves leading in the second technical timeout 16-8. With serve receive locked down tight, Nick Davies was able to have a field day with the offense, finding his hitters one on one situations which they terminated relentlessly. Riga, unprepared for such a relentless onslaught was finally able to regain their footing and capitalize on a few uncharacteristic unforced errors committed by Tendring and bring the score to 19-16. Unfazed, Derek Guimond brought the block party to town and thunder blocked the opposing middle twice in a row, forcing Riga to call a timeout to regain their composure. Riga was again able to regain their foothold and capitalize on back to back service errors from Tendring, but the red giants would answer again with a block to the face from Costa and Lawrence to turn the serve back to Tendring. To cap off the first set, Lawrence would chisel a beautiful set from Nick Davies off the noodley arms of the opposing blocker to end the set 25-19.
Going into the second set, Riga dug deep and leapt out with an early 4 nil lead before the Riga opposite would bury the ball in the bottom on the net scoring Tendrings first point. Like a lion stalking a wounded gazelle, letting it think it had a chance to escape, Costa would take to the service line to anchor Tendring as they began a 10-0 run. Off balance from his rocket serves, Riga swung ball after ball into the waiting hands of Stuart Dovey, Mitchell Lawrence, and Robert Chilcoat. After being aced twice and blocked three times in a row, Riga was able to escape the brutal onslaught into the first technical timeout. Knowing that their game plan wasn't working, Riga chose to swing harder and lower, hoping to catch the Tendring blockers off guard. But boy were they in for a treat. With the block party in full swing, Chilcoat, Lawrence, and Dovey continued to thunder block ball after ball that attempted to cross the net. A missed serve allowed Riga to escape the mental and physical onslaught and were able to turn 2 points on Tendring's unforced errors. Anchoring the serve receive unit, Jack Bruce set the standard by dropping dimes on Nick Davies head, allowing him to dish the nectar to his hungry pin hitters. With Nick Davies and Derek Guimond fresh to the front line, they kept the block party going establishing joint US-UK wall that Trump would be proud of and sent hits rocketing to the ground on Riga's side. With yet another thunder block from the afore mentioned, Tendring took the second technical timeout 16-6. Riga would trade points to get within 5 of Tendring before the lads would lock down serve receive, blocking and hitting, ending the set 25-16.
Up 2 sets to none, Alex Porter subbed in Tom Dacey to fire up the squad. Riga, down two sets to nil dug deep into their souls and beat Tendring to the first technical timeout 8-6 and then the second technical timeout 16-12. Again it was unforced errors by Tendring that allowed Riga to hang in the game. Coming out of the second technical, Tendring began to play with a sense of urgency. Tom Dacey anchored Tendring from the service line with an ace and some incredible float serves, allowed Tendring to draw level with Riga at 18-18. Trading point after point, Tendring was able to extend a lead after a magnificent defensive save by Stewart Dovey, making the game 23-21 in Tendring's favor. Costa, taking advantage of an open net and a nectar set from Nick Davies, detonated the match point ball to finish the set 25-22.