The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Karnataka survives

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Karnataka survives

M.C. Raman

Pune: Maharashtra's Asif U. Mulla was a revelation. The national youth camp player who missed the bus because he did not have the passport to go with the Indian team, virtually shook Karnataka with his brilliant jump serve and attack. But Karnataka recovered from a shaky start to beat Maharashtra at 21-25, 25-19. 25-21, 25-18 in men's Group D of the 54th National senior volleyball championship at the S.P. College campus here on Tuesday.

It was a toss up between these two teams in this group. And for Karnataka, which was Nationalsemifinalist not long ago, it was the toughest match in the pool. In the preliminary phase it is winning that counts as only the top team qualifies.

Shaky defence

Initially, Karnataka's defence was shaky. Experienced international like Sreesekhar has returned to the team. But the squad did not have the right mix of double block to stop Asif Mulla, Sourabh Rokade, Amaya Kulkarini. Not only did these three spike well, but also collected more points through strong jump serve. And Kanrataka's first pass was in disarray.

However, Karnataka did well to shut down the rival in the beginning of the second set itself. And Pruthiviraj, who was shaky, started hitting winners. Vikram, former Services player Premjith, Lakshminarayan and Damodar began to consolidate.

Karnataka surged to a six point-lead and won it comfortably. But in the third set, Maharashtra did fight for a brief period, but Karnataka's net defence helped it to take the third and fourth sets also.

Other results: Men: Gr. A: Orissa bt Pondicherry 25-19, 25-17, 25-10; Gr. D: Bihar bt J & K 25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20.

Women: Gr. C: Punjab bt Uttaranchal 25-12, 25-10, 25-8; Gujarat bt J & K 25-15, 25-13, 25-9; Gr. A: Chattisgarh bt Orissa 25-11, 25-11, 25-11.

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