The Hindu : Services takes on Kerala in men's final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Services takes on Kerala in men's final

By Avinash Nair

Kerala's S. Vinod (left) reaches for the ball while rivals, libero (right) V.K. Singh and P.S. Srikanth (centre) of the Indian Railways watch in the semifinals of the 52nd senior National volleyball championship in Davangere on Saturday. — Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

DAVANGERE Dec. 6. Services defeated the defending champion Uttaranchal and will take on Kerala in the men's final of the 52nd Senior National volleyball championship. At the District stadium courts here on the penultimate evening, Services thundered with regularity and righteousness to outplay the defending champion 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 in just 53 minutes.

Earlier Kerala derailed the highly tipped Railways 25-22, 9-25, 25-23, 26-24 in 80 minutes.

The women's final pits traditional rival Railways with Kerala. Both the winners scored straight sets win over Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.

Tom Joseph was not as fluent and as effective as he was against AP yesterday. But then Jobish and Kishore Kumar and even substitute S. Vinod was enough for coach Raghavan to fall back on. And on this day with Sreesh too providing the needed solidity in propping the attack force the Railwaymen for once looked out of character.

Railways did have in Kapil Dev and Ravikanth Reddy, players of high calibre. And today the duo along with Srikanth did stand up to the Kerala onslaught but the consistency was sadly missing. And the attack came up against a wall in the form of Tom and Vinod with P.K. Sunil Kumar too defending well.

TN women bow out

The women's semifinals turned out hopelessly one-sided. Though TN women were not expected to pose any challenge to Railways, the oft crowned champion and bowed out meekly, West Bengal was expected to pose some nerve-wracking moments for Kerala. But on this day, captain Salitha Prasad and Sheeba P.V stole a march over the rest and smashed their way through with a fluidity that was not seen in earlier fixtures.

The results (semifinals): Men: Services bt Uttaranchal 25-20, 25-15, 25-20; Kerala bt Railways 25-22, 9-25, 25-23, 26-24.

Women: Kerala bt West Bengal 25-15, 25-15, 25-20; Railways bt TN 25-13, 25-13, 25-11.

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