The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Southern Railways shocks Kochi Refineries

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Saturday, May 07, 2005

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Southern Railways shocks Kochi Refineries

Sports Reporter

BANGALORE: Southern Railway shocked a spineless Kochi Refineries (Kochi) in straight sets and advanced into the semifinals of the inaugural Rajiv Gandhi Memorial all-India invitation volleyball tournament at the Hoody SC court here on Friday evening. The goodly crowd was stunned into disbelief as Southern Railway chugged along for a 29-27, 25-18, 25-21 verdict.

The Kochi side was a pale shadow of its usual self. Tom Joseph's booming serves were conspicuously missing, while his powerful essays from the attack line was effectively blunted by the twin blockers — Mukesh Lal and Sunil Kumar.

In fact it was former international Sunil Kumar who stole the show with some spectacular spiking and intelligent net play.

Earlier, Indian Seniors `B' women shrugged aside a tough fight from Western Railway (Mumbai) to win in straight sets, though the third went into extra points. Vaishali Padthare set the passes for the tall trio of Gayathri, Shiji Kurian and Shiby to spike away. Indian Srs `B' won 25-17, 25-22, 30-28 in 71 minutes.

The results: Men: Quarterfinals: Southern Railway (Chennai) bt Kochi Refineries (Kochi) 29-27, 25-18, 25-21. League: Navy (Kochi) bt ICF (Chennai) 21-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-14, 18-16; Kochi Refineries bt Karnataka Hoody Club 28-26, 25-23, 25-18; IOB bt Income Tax (Hyd) 18-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-16.

Women: League: Indian Srs `B' bt Western Railway (Mumbai) 25-17, 25-22, 30-28.

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