Al Rayyan beat Philippines’ PLDT Home Tvolution Power Pinoys in straight sets in Manila yesterday.
Qatar’s Al Rayyan stormed into the semi-finals of the Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championships with a straight sets win over Philippines’ PLDT Home Tvolution Power Pinoys in Manila yesterday.
Al Rayyan hit their stride early in the match for a 25-17, 25-14, 25-21 victory at the Mall of Asia Arena and will face Kondensat-Kazakhstan in the last four today.
“Qatar is a very strong team, the problem is that we ran out of first balls. Nobody was able to receive so we were not able to run plays,” said PH captain Christian Fernandez.
“We needed combination plays because they are very tall but we couldn’t execute.”
The Power Pinoys gave away too many free points in the opening set, committing severals errors from the service zone. Qatar easily took the set, with the towering duo of Yosleyder Cala Gerardo and Saeed Ibrahim Mohamed doing the damage.
The second set was more disastrous for the home team as they ran out of fuel to receive. Qatar feasted on this setback, with Italian import Savani Christian scoring on off speed attacks.
The third set looked different, however, as the Power Pinoys wanted to salvage their campaign. Aided by their better floor coverage and blocking, the nationals raced to a 13-12 edge. Jason Ramos and Cedric Legrand scored service aces in that stretch as the squad tried to rattle their opponent’s defense.
But that was when Christian took over, scoring three straight to give back the lead to the Qataris, 16-14.
Al Rayyan then got a boost from opposite spiker Waleed Mubarak who came off the bench to deliver the back-breaking spikes that ended the Power Pinoys rally aspirations.
Christian was happy with Al Rayyan’s accomplishment so far, given they only had three practice sessions before the tournament.
“We are happy we make it to the semis it is my first time with this team,” said the veteran Italian national team member.
Christian scored 19 points on 17 attacks, while Cala Gerardo added 10 markers. Legrand carried the fight for the nationals scoring 9 points.
The Power Pinoys were badly dominated on offense, scoring just 19 spikes compared to 41 for the taller Qataris. Al Rayyan also scored 10 block points and 6 service aces.
