The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Winning start by Kochi Refineries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 01, 2005

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Sport - Volleyball

Winning start by Kochi Refineries

Kirti Patil

CHITTORGARH: Kochi Refineries Ltd. (KRL) made a positive start to its campaign with a straight set victory over Cochin Port Trust (CPT) in the inaugural match in the National volleyball super league championship at the Pratap Stadium here on Wednesday.

Captain R. Rajeev and fellow-spiker E.K. Kishore Kumar controlled the net play while international Tom Joseph smashed crucial winners to script KRL's 25-19, 25-13, 25-13 win.

In good touch

KRL showed good touch with its blocks and smashes controlling the proceedings for the most part of the match.

Refinery men led 10-7 in the first set when V. Manu smashed his way to put CPT on par with KRL at 11-11. Manu followed his good work with yet another crosscourt spike that put CPT 12-11 ahead.A booming smash by Rajeev put KRL 10-4 ahead in the third set and all the prospects of forcing the match into the fourth set diminished. Tom Joseph set up the first match point for KRL but CPT saved that when Paul Joseph made a fine block. But there was hardly any resistance left in CPT rally from such a rundown position.

S. Rly through

In the women's section, Southern Railway, Chennai, struggled towards the end but held on its brief and beat Western Railway 3-0.

With the match locked 21-21 in the third set, international Siji Kurian came up with some fine winners before setting first match-point for the Chennai team. Siji then made a double-handed block to give Southern Railway 25-11, 25-22, 25-22 win.

Southern Railway opened a huge 21-7 lead in the first set before closing it in regulation, but Western Railway seemed a different side in the second set. The Mumbai team made amends to its sloppy play in the first set and put pressure on Southern Railway by taking a handy lead in the second set.

The combination of K. Geeta Raju and K.T. Betsy revived Southern Railway before Libero P. Nadhiya played her part to the fullest. At 18-18, Shiji blocked nicely to put Southern Railway ahead by a point and then Geeta made a nice drop to stun the opposition.

The results:

Men: Kochi Refineries Ltd. bt Cochin Port Trust 25-19, 25-13, 25-13.

Women: Southern Railway bt Western Railway 25-11, 25-22, 25-22.

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