Sport - Volleyball   

Dream day for KSEB women

By M.C. Raman

The ecstatic KSEB girls after winning the title. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI, JAN. 21. The Kerala State Electricity Board women won their maiden title, beating South Central Railway (Secunderbad) 25-21, 25-17, 25-21 in the final match, in the Super League of the Nutrine Maha Lacto National volleyball league at the Nehru indoor stadium here on Wednesday.

By winning three out of four matches in the five-team round-robin, KSEB tied with defending champion Southern Railway (Chennai) but was declared winner due to a better set average. KSEB needed either a straight-set or four-set victory over SCR after Southern Railway finished its engagements on Tuesday with a 10-6 set record. Before its final match, KSEB had 7-4 and did well to clinch the tie in straight sets.

Southern Railway was runner-up while South Central Railway, Central Railway and GKM Foundation followed in that order.

Since the introduction of clubs in the National League two years ago, Southern Railway had been the winner. But KSEB, which finished third last year at Renukoot, derailed the champion.

Before the commencement of the league, KSEB coach Sunny Joseph, also the coach of the Kerala men's team which won the National senior championship for the first time in 47 years at Visakhapatnam in 1997, said, "We missed the National senior championship title at Davangere (Karnataka) but this year we want to take this one." And the team lived up to his expectations.

"It was a bad day yesterday (Tuesday). But Gisha was spiking well, Sheeba did a good job in block and the team combined well today. It did not give away negative points like Tuesday," said Sunny Joseph.

It was a shaky start by KSEB as it conceded a four-point lead (5-9). But it roared back and raced to a 20-15 advantage, thanks to its strong attacks and solid blocks. With the KSEB first pass being good, the South Central Railway players ran into a tough block. Sheeba, Salitha Prasad and Ashwini Sasikumar, who hit the high ball superbly from close to the net, hardly gave any chance to Lathia, Shazhia Sheikh and Poongodi.

In the second set, KSEB enjoyed a six-point cushion and a seven-point lead in the third. SCR was completely demoralised by the rival's solid net defence. Only for a brief period in the third set did Nagavardhini blunt a couple of shots as SCR went ahead 19-17, but the Kerala squad bounced back to clinch the set and match.

The South Central Railway men played their hearts out to lower the colours of last year's runner-up Kochi Refineries 17-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-23, 15-10. With four wins and one loss, SCR made sure of at least the No. 2 position this year.

It was a tough grind for both teams but the Railway squad's attack was stronger. Srikanth, a World youth championship player, spiked well consistently with Pradeep and Sudharshan Varma lending him good support.

The SCR defence was shaky and Tom Joseph hit 27 of his 44 shots. But there was no proper second-line attack though Ismail and Kishore did the; job a few times.

It was the defence that forced the Railway side to sweat as Rajiv was sharp and strong at the net.

SCR conceded 30 points through errors against Kochi Refineries' 17. Still the team prevailed as Srikanth found his touch at the right time. Whenever a first pass was good, Ravikanth Reddy set the ball well. The Kochi team led 17-14 in the fourth set and was heading towards victory.

But Srikanth came to the Railway team's rescue and Pradeep hit the short ball quickly to push the tie into a fifth set. In the decider, SCR ran up a 10-5 lead and outplayed Kochi Refineries.

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