The Hindu : Sport : Preethi stars in S.Rly win

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Wednesday, Nov 09, 2005

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Sport

Preethi stars in S.Rly win

Special Correspondent

— Photo: S. Thanthoni

HAPPY FACES: The Southern Railway women's team which won the 29th all-India Railway women's volleyball championship.

Chennai: Preethi Kartha's superb spiking and solid defence after a poor start helped Southern Railway, the host, take sweet revenge by dethroning Central at 25-21, 29-27, 25-19 in the final of the all India inter-Railway women's volleyball tournament at the Montfort indoor stadium here on Tuesday.

Last year, Central dashed Southern's hopes in the final. But this time, despite its inadequate bench strength, the host came back strongly from 8-18 in the first set to crush its rival. In fact, it looked to be a thoroughly one-sided contest in the beginning as Central unleashed its shots unchallenged. Hemalatha, Kalindi, Priyanka and Yogita gave a torrid time to Southern.

But a series of solid double blocks by Geeta Raju, Shiji Kurien, Gayathri and, the tallest of the lot, Betsy turned the set in the home team's favour as it made it 19-all and surged ahead. With Nadiya setting well, Preethi, a short girl with superb jump, unleashed her thundering smashes. Central's defence collapsed.

From then on it was all downhill for the defending champion. Despite close races in the beginning Southern broke away to a 22-20 lead in the second and 22-18 in the third. Central ran into a tough block and the team caved in.

Earlier, Eastern finished third, beating Western 25-23, 25-12, 25-21.

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