Services in last eight

Salem, Jan 13: Andhra Pradesh from Group A and Services from Group B posted unimpressive wins in their concluding league engagements to scrape through to the men8217;s quarter-finals in the 48th Senior National Volleyball championships at Bose Maidan on Thursday.

Andhra Pradesh caused an upset of sorts, beating back a tough second and third set challenge from National League runners-up Karnataka before coming away 25-21, 28-26, 25-21 winners to join Punjab and Railways in the last eight stage. Ravikanth Reddy, the Indian setter, donned the role of spiker and gave his teammates enough teeth in attack while Jayaprakash, Sunil Kumar and Pradeep Sirangi took care of the blocks and counter attacks. Services turned in their best performance to date and stayed in contention after their ace Premjith, Shijas Mohamad and C Rajan combined well with setter TP Surendran for a 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 win.

Results Men Group A: Railways bt Delhi 25-17, 25-22, 25-15. Group B: Kerala bt UP 23-25, 25-15, 25-18,25-18. Group C: West Bengal bt Goa 25-20, 25-22, 25-19; Gujarat bt Tripura 25-22, 25-17, 20-25, 25-17. Group D: Rajasthan bt Maharashtra 25-12, 25-23, 25-22. Women Group A: Railways bt Karnataka 26-28, 25-15, 25-14, 25-19.