The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Kerala, TN in both finals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 01, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Kerala, TN in both finals

Principal Correspondent

ANGAMALY: Kerala edged out Haryana -25, 25-14, 25-20, 19-25, 15-12 in a high-voltage thriller that turned bitter towards the end and entered the men’s final of the 11th National youth volleyball championship on Saturday evening. Kerala and Tamil Nadu will now clash in both the finals on Sunday evening.

Haryana looked a tougher bunch than Kerala in the men’s semifinal. The team had more firepower in its smashes and had a better block too, but after a dazzling show for a major part of the match, some of the team’s top stars caved in under pressure towards the end.

After losing the first set, Kerala captain Adarsh Hari, Vysakh Sundaran and Manu Joseph helped the host recover with their fine smashes, training their guns on the side of the block.

But Haryana captain Rajkumar and attacker Narender Kumar, the son of former Indian great Balwant Singh, with their powerful smashes levelled the set scores.

The decider was close but Haryana gained a crucial break at 10-8 with Narender in fine nick but a few minutes later, he shockingly smashed out and then netted a smash. In between, captain Rajkumar messed up a return to virtually hand over the match to the host.

The Haryana men were also upset with a couple of decisions in the decider and there were loud arguments after the match. Earlier, Tamil Nadu breezed past Himachal Pradesh 25-7, 25-14, 25-12 and entered the women’s final.

The Tamil Nadu team looked a more settled combination than the HP girls, who were tall but they could not use this advantage well.

The results (semifinals): Men: Kerala bt Haryana 22-25, 25-14, 25-20, 19-25, 15-12. Women: TN bt HP 25-7, 25-14, 25-12.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport