The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Kerala, TN enter semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Kerala, TN enter semifinals

Kirti Patil

VOLLEYBALL / Railways women defeat Maharashtra

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

SMASH HIT: Kerala’s Kishore Kumar and Shamji K. Thomas attempt to block Railways’ Pradeep’s smash in the quarterfinals of the National volleyball championship.

JAIPUR: Railways’ reign in volleyball came to an end when a motivated Kerala defeated the men’s defending champion and stormed into the semifinals of the National volleyball championship here on Sunday.

Tom Joseph and Shamji K. Thomas spiked with force and accuracy putting the Railways defence on the back foot from the start. The writing was on the wall and Railways could hardly alter its fate as Kerala won 25-21, 25-18, 25-20 in just over an hour.

In the entire match Railways could never take lead in any of the sets. Setter K. J. Kapil Dev was left ruing at the net by inspired blocks from Vibin M. George and E. K. Kishore Kumar.

Tom Joseph shines

The star of the Railways-Kerala quarterfinal was Tom Joseph. Tom made his intentions clear from the very start when he smashed the first winner to earn the opening point for Kerala.

Railways’ captain Sudarshan Varma and Balganesh scored winners to keep Railways afloat for a while in the first set, before Thomas and Joseph came up with telling smashes to give Kerala a 16-11 lead. The five-point lead was enough for Kerala to exert more pressure as Tom smashed a clean winner to earn five set points.

Joseph was again at his best as Kerala opened the scoring before he joined Vibin M. George to execute an impressive block. Points kept coming in Kerala’s way as it improved its lead from 14-9 to 22-16.

N. P. Subair then scored two points to give Kerala another set point before it took the 2-0 lead.

Kerala will meet Tamil Nadu in the first semifinal.

Tamil Nadu rallied from a set down to beat Punjab 21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-22.

Expected line-up

In the women’s section, the line-up was on the expected lines. Railways toyed with Maharashtra to win 25-11, 25-11, 25-8 in 52 minutes as it led the same line-up into the semifinals as it was in the last Nationals in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

In the first semifinal on Monday, Railways will meet Tamil Nadu, which beat Andhra Pradesh in a marathon battle.