New Diamond, fielding five players below the age of thirteen in the open category event on Saturday, gave a tough challenge to Workers Martyrs Memorial Club (WMMC) most of whom were double their size. [break]
WMMC struggled to defeat New Diamond 25-18, 24-26, 25-16, 24-26, 15-13 in the best of five sets.
New Diamond´s coach Kumar Rai said most of the experienced players of the school had graduated and left while others were preparing for the SLC. “We have been handicapped as we have only one senior player in the team,” he said. Rai informed that the youngest player in his team was ten years old.
The young players had to put in extra effort to swerve the ball but they were on par with their opponents in terms of skills. New Diamond´s senior player Ramila Tandukar was adjudged the best player. Impressed with the team´s performance, Neeraj Maskey, member of Nepal Volleyball Association, personally awarded Rs 5,000 to the team.
In another match, Nepal Police Club (NPC) opened their game with a straight set victory against MMC Kaski. NPC defeated MMC 25-14, 25-10, 25-11. Chura Khadka of NPC was declared the best player. MMC had earlier defeated Angel´s Heart School 22-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-21 in the opening match of the day held at Dhorpatan Sports Training Club, New Bus Park. Kamala Purja of Angel´s Heart was adjudged the best player in the match.
Altogether nine teams from different parts of the country are competing in the tournament whose total cost is estimated to be Rs 2,250,000. All the teams will have to compete with each other in the first round of the 13-day event. Only the top seven teams will advance into the next round. The winners will bag a purse of Rs 203,000 while the runners-up and second runners-up will receive Rs 102,000 and Rs 51,000 respectively.
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