Railways in both semis

SALEM, JANUARY 14: Defending champions Punjab and Railways in the men's section, and holders Railways and Andhra Pradesh in the women's se...

SALEM, JANUARY 14: Defending champions Punjab and Railways in the men8217;s section, and holders Railways and Andhra Pradesh in the women8217;s section, moved into the semi-finals of the 48th Senior National Volleyball Championship here on Friday.

Punjab men, who maintained an all-win record in the league phase despite landing here without two of their key players Ratan Lal and Surjit Singh, score a 25-19, 25-23, 25-19 win over Madhya Pradesh, while Railways outplayed Services 25-23, 25-17, 27-25.

In the women8217;s section, Railways crushed Himachal Pradesh 25-7, 25-6, 25-8, and Andhra Pradesh beat Karnataka 25-16, 25-17, 25-13.

In the first quarter-final, MP, who entered the last eight beating Group C toppers West Bengal in a play-off match late on Thursday night in straight sets, put up a poor show as the Punjab men, led by international Amir Singh, dominated the match through their spike power. Amir Singh and Jagbir Singh figured in most of the winners, while their net defence was led by Pritpal Singh and Roy Joseph.

The losers earned most of their points from good blocks by setter Salman Khan, while Ajay Singh, captain Ashish Arora and Rajendra Singh were erratic in their spiking.

In another match in the men8217;s section, Railways held an edge over Services despite the first and second sets being fought closely. It was spiker Sunil Kumar who led the Railway attack as their main spiker Rajesh Tiwari was off-colour.

The third set witnessed a neck-and-neck race till the halfway stage, but with Sunil Kumar spiking well and Kapil Dev coming up with fine blocks, Railways took a slender lead at 20-17. But Services fought back through striker Premjit. Points were won alternately by the teams from then on, but a fine angled shot by Tiwari saw Railways serving for the match at 26-25 and a fine block by veteran PV Ramana, who mostly confined himself to the backcourt, sealed Services8217; fate.

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Punjab await the winner of the other quarter-final between Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, while Railways will take on the winner of Tamil Nadu-Karnataka match in the semi-finals, to be played on Saturday. Karnataka, who finished fourth in Group A also entered the quarter-final defeating Rajasthan 3-0 in another play-off tie.

The women8217;s quarter-finals turned out to be one-sided with Himachal Pradesh, who entered the knock-out phase with three wins and a loss, offering no resistance to star-studded Railways, while Karnataka fought briefly in the second and third sets against Andhra Pradesh.

Railways will meet winner of the Tamil Nadu-Delhi match, and Andhra Pradesh await winner of the West Bengal-Kerala game.