Army, Police to vie for title in rematch

Published On: January 25, 2017 10:00 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

Players of Armed Police Force (red) and Nepal Police Club in action during their match of the 2nd Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) National Men's Volleyball Tournament held in Lagankhel, Lalitpur on Wedenesday. Photo Courtesy: NSC

KATHMANDU, Jan 26: The summit clash of the ongoing 2nd Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) National Men's Volleyball Tournament will be the rematch of the last edition after defending champion Tribhuvan Army Club and runner-up Nepal Police Club advanced to the final on Wednesday.

In the semifinal clash played at Army's Physical Fitness and Training Center, Lagankhel, Army registered straight sets win of 25-17, 25-19, 25-16 over Western Region. Similarly the another last four clash saw Police beatAPF 25-27, 21-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-7 to fix the final match against Army. The final match will be played on Friday.

After the match, Police's coach Saroj Shrestha pointed out the heroic performance of spikers Dwarika Thapa and Raju Sherchan as key to victory. “I am very happy toward the performances of my players. We started dominating from the third set after Dwarika snatched four points from spike and the team also played in same tune,” said Shrestha.

“In the previous matches we had faced problems due to absence of the senior players but the juniors impressed today and led us to victory. This is very positive sign for the team,” further added Shrestha.

Police's coach Shrestha is former spiker of the national team as he had represented Nepal in 9th, 10th and 11th editions of the South Asian Games (SAG). He started his coaching career with Police from last year.

Earlier Police had lost first two sets to departmental rival APF but Shrestha's decision of replacing Dwarika in place of Dipak Joshi became turning point of the match. Dwarika then contributed in earning valuable points for his team which eventually saw Police win the match. Shrestha then brought on Dev Sharma in the match which also proved to be fruitful. Police's key spiker Chandra Kunwar and Dev play in same position but coach Shrestha opted Chandra from the first set. However in the fourth set Chandra came off paving way for Raju Sherchan.

In the meantime, APF's manager Bijay KC pointed to inexperience of his players as the reason for semifinal exit. “Despite winning the first two sets we couldn't win the match as players became nervous from the third set. Our spikers couldn't maintain the momentum,” he said.

He also stated that the absence of key spiker Milan Malla affected the performance of his team. “Milan is not fully fit and we missed him today,” ended KC.