Hyderabad block ITI progress

VADODARA, April 20: Hyderabad Spikers arrested the march of ITI Bangalore defeating them in a four-setter in the preliminary round one of ...

VADODARA, April 20: Hyderabad Spikers arrested the march of ITI Bangalore defeating them in a four-setter in the preliminary round one of the Federation Cup Volleyball Championship, being hosted by GSFC, here on Monday.

Having lost to KSEB on Sunday night, the spikers were determined to do well on Monday and got off to a roaring start right away winning the first set 15-1. Their spiker Ajay Kumar Reddy, a member of the Indian senior team, stood out with his excellent shots.

However, the spikers struggled in the following two sets, losing the second 9-15 and winning the third by a hair8217;s breadth 17-16. They had no difficulty winning the fourth set 15-4 to wrap up the match in 88 mts.

Still, the ITI men lead the round Robin league table with five points from three matches.

In a late night match on Sunday, they prevented Tamil Nadu Electricity Board from gaining it8217;s second victory of the tournament.

The cops from Delhi, winners of the All-India Inter-Departmental police Volleyball championship heldearlier this month in Hyderabad, took just 81 minutes to subdue TNEB 15-10, 15-9, 15-11.

TNEB led 7-2 and 10-7 in the first set, out some consistently neat boosting and spiking by Jagbir Singh, Sandeep Singh, Gurdeep Singh and Ratan Lal helped the cops wrest the lead and press home the advantage to win.

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The second and third sets followed much the same pattern with TNEB taking the initial lead but being unable to hold on to it.

In other night matches, KSEB defeated Hyderabad spikers in straight sets, while the women of Southern Club took four sets to overcome Gujarat. KSEB beat Hyderabad spikers 16-14, 15-6, 17-16. The two women8217;s teams scratched into the draw as Rajashtan and Karnataka failed to arrive. The teams battled hard with long rallies and the first set went the home team8217;s way as they won 17-16. However Southern , an amalgam of South Indian clubs, claimed the next three sets rather comfortably 15-1, 15-6, 15-8 to win the match.