El Jiash team pose with the trophy after winning the QVA Cup Volleyball tournament, the opening event of the domestic season, at the Al Arabi Stadium yesterday.
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
El Jiash outplayed Al Arabi 3-1 to regain the QVA Cup Volleyball tournament, the opening event of the domestic season, at the Al Arabi Stadium yesterday.
After losing the first set, Jaish came back strongly in the next three to retain the title, which they won in 2012 and 2013 after defeating Al Sadd and Al Rayyan, respectively. In the semi-finals, Jaish had defeated league champions Rayyan, while Arabi got past Al Ahli.
Jaish, who lost to Arabi in the last year’s final in a five-set thriller, produced a flowing performance, recovering from a telling blow in the first set to heap misery on the defending champions for the sweet revenge. The army team, inspired by their professional player Christian Pampell, staged a valiant comeback by playing aggressively and counting on the mistakes of the hosts to win 23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-18
“The match was quite tough. We lost the final last year to them so it’s a good win for us,” Pampell, who used his power-packed smashes to the full, said told Gulf Times.
Talking about the Qatar Volleyball League, which will commence from November 25, Pampell said, “Yes you can say today’s win is a good warm-up for us. We are well prepared for the league and hopefully we would have good results in the coming months.”
Stevanovic borthers – setter Milos and libero Marcos, outside hitter Ileja Ivoic and Pape Mageth also combined well for the winners. “A win is a win. There can’t be a better start to the season than winning the trophy in the first tournament,” Milos said.
Jaish coach Ljubomir Travica was delighted with the win as the Italian said: “It was really difficult match. Arabi is quite a strong side. Now as we have won the first title of the season, I think more titles are on the way.”
After the first set, Arabi could not come up with any fight against their much superior opponents. Their Cuban professional Osmel tried his best to, but he did not have the support from his teammates.
In the second set, Jaish were ahead initially. But after leading 20-19, Jaish gained advantage again when Osmel’s smash went out of the court and they sealed the set 25-23 with a deep serve. Thereafter the hosts were only going through the motion in the third and fourth set.
Arabi coach Mawia Alajnaf was also disappointed with his boys performance yesterday. “It was very disappointing to lose after winning the first set. We started off well, but somehow lost the concentration after that,” Alajnaf said.
“Some of our top players are not with us and our setter was also not well today. But I must say Jaish played well in the last three sets,” he said.
